Jennifer Pickering told CNN the storm that flat cornfields sounded like a train and felt like it took the breath out of her body.
Boards from other buildings were blown up in her brother’s home, where she was staying, she said. Broken windows and howling rain pushed the house so hard that they could not open doors, and she found her sister-in-law in bed covered with leaks of broken glass with boards flying around her.
“I honestly sometimes think we die,” Pickering said.
The storm system is classified as a derecho, and it has the criteria of wind in excess of 58 mph and damage that spans at least 250 miles, CNN meteorologist Tyler Mauldin said.
A total number of injuries were not reported, but more than 450 storm reports were made – 95% of which were wind reports.
Those numbers are expected to go up as the storms, although significantly weakened, push the southeast, Mauldin said.
Storm damage requires the accident in Cedar Rapids
Cedar Rapids, Iowa – where the NWS reports vines exceeding 90 mph – entered an evening hole due to the damage left behind.
“There is devastating damage to property to homes and businesses in all parts of the city,” the city government wrote Monday in a statement to residents. “Trees and streamlines run through the city, making many large roads unwise.”
The departure point will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. until further notice, and local transition service in the city has been suspended until Wednesday.
About 50 people were hospitalized with storm-related injuries around Cedar Rapids, according to the police department, and electrocution of downed powerlines remains the main concern.
A ‘particularly dangerous situation’
The storms are part of what the National Water Service’s Storm Prediction Center called a “particularly dangerous situation.”
Outside of Iowa City, a family came to the aid of the driver of a semi-truck who said they were blown on Interstate 80.
Michelle Turney told CNN that she, her husband and her son helped the driver out of the truck and kept him in their pickup while they waited for paramedics and police. Her husband kept the man talking to help him relax, she said.
CNN’s Judson Jones, Amanda Jackson and Andy Rose contributed to this report.
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