Urbandale neighborhood cleaning up damage from EF-1 tornado

URBANDALE, Iowa — A couple blocks in Urbandale have been without power since an EF-1 tornado ripped through in just a couple minutes on Monday evening.

“It happened super fast, my husband just got home a couple of minutes before it happened,” said Sarah Brooks of Urbandale. Brooks’ home had a tree fall on the front corner of their roof, leaving a hole in the top floor and water leaking all the way to the basement. “And then I just heard this like howling noise, really loud from the wind.”

The Brooks home had damage to their family van as well. Along with the storm cutting the power off for homes around 78th and Dellwood Drive, downed power lines can still be seen hanging down and laying on the ground a day later.

Around 5:40 p.m. on Monday, wind picked up to dangerous levels, leaving people sprinting to shelter.

“As I was shutting my garage doors the wind really started picking up, so got a little scared there,” said Ben Hootman of Urbandale. “So I ran back to my house, I actually jumped over my fence to get inside my house, turned around to start recording to see what I could catch.” Hootman had some damage to his garage and dents in the bed of his truck, but deemed himself lucky as it could have been worse.

Just down the block, the damage was a little less severe, but branches and limbs were scattered everywhere.

“I was outside cooking on the grill and I started to pull the meat off before the storm came through,” said Phil Johnson, who has lived in his home for 30 plus years with his wife. “And probably within 30 seconds the wind was just unbelievable…it is the worst I’ve ever seen.”

The Johnson home had a big branch from their tree out front come crashing down onto the roof, leaving damage, but thankfully the roof remained sealed.

“I was inside and all of a sudden, after the power went out, I heard a huge thud and I knew something not good had happened,” said Johnson.

With the large amount of storm debris the city of Urbandale is asking residents to have all of it collected and sitting on the curb before this upcoming Sunday, July 21 for collection.

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