Possible tornado damages Hamilton County farms, blows trucks off the road

ELLSWORTH, Iowa — Storms rolled though Hamilton County damaging several farms, and blowing debris onto I-35 closing that road southbound at the Kamar exit.

“We had a farm that sustained some substantial damage so that blew debris on the interstate,” said Iowa State Trooper, Paul Gardner. “We had semi trucks that were toppled over in the median so we’ve been trying to get those cleaned up. We had tow trucks DOT out here trying to clean up the mess.”

The storm slammed into the Kevin Bottorff farm just prior to 5 am.

“It was the first we heard the wind is like getting strong and then the machine just threw itself against my house and that was a loud bang, said Bottorff. “That really woke you up.”

Bottorff went outside to see his machine shed gone, and the tin wrapped around in a ball near his house.

“I have no doubt this is a tornado that there’s a debris field from Stanhope all the way up through here,” said Bottorff. ” It was straight line and it’s narrow so we don’t have any doubt, plus where the debris ended up being wrapped around the house up there.”

Neighbors on a southwest to northeast line also had damage with uprooted trees, downed power lines, and sheds damaged or destroyed.

“This is the worst I’ve seen at least, for the storm that has come through this area anyway,” said Gardner.

Bottorff had retired from farming last fall. He has sold all of his farm equipment, but the new owner of his combine left it in his machine shed. The combine is still standing, but the tin for the shed is out in the cornfield.

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