As of June 17, 2014, 10:30 am
Severe storms spread across Iowa, (Nebraska and Minnesota) yesterday (Monday) afternoon and all evening.
Seven confirmed tornados were sighted in Iowa, thankfully most of them did not touch the ground.
One tornado did touch down in Clarksville, Iowa (NE) and did damage to roofs, trees and power lines.
Far Northwest Iowa is flooded and has more water to come.
Rock Valley Iowa has flooding and enforced evacuations. Much of the town has flooded, the Church in Rock Valley has water in the basement.
Lester, Iowa has flooding, the parsonage is dry and they are moving the things in the church basement to the parsonage. The town has flooding and homes and businesses are flooded.
Rock Rapids has flooding, many homes with significant water, the church and the parsonage are dry but many people are out of their homes. The Red Cross has a shelter set up at the school.
Flooding has also been reported in Lyons County, Plymouth County and Sioux County with travel restrictions in Lyons County
All across Iowa we had power outages and tree limbs down and lowland flooding.
Wind Damage is reported in Winthrop, Laurens, Larchwood, Clarksville, Waterloo, Fort Dodge, Plover, Westbend, Clear lake, West Okoboji, Mason City, Edgewood, Tripoli and Goodell and many other communities.
If your town has storm damage and you need help or clean-up supplies, please contact your District Office or District Disaster Response Coordinator
Southwest – Vicki Wedemeyer 712-249-6307
North Central – Paul Evans 712-490-9693
Central – Julie Wehner 515-201-8183
South Central – to be announced
East Central – Mike and Becky Wood 319-270-3940
Northeast – Marlys Anderson 563-379-2243
Southeast – Arden and Karen Hughes 319-621-3872
Northwest – Jena or Kirk Manchester 319-981-2971
The worst of the storm hit Eastern Nebraska with Tornados doing significant damage to Pilger, Wisner, Stanton and Pender. The town of Pilger (374 pop) was hit head on and has many serious injuries and two deaths. We have offered our prayers and help to the Great Plains Conference.
At this time there is no call out for our help in Nebraska, Please DO NOT simply go, the towns effected have been closed to non-emergency personnel at this time.
WE NEED YOUR HELP
Do keep all persons affected by the storms in your prayers.
As recovery begins there will be many needs, we will keep you informed as they become known to us.
Today (Tuesday) we need drinking water, Clean-up Buckets, Gloves, and Large trash bags please deliver them to Grace UMC in Sioux City, 1745 Morningside Ave, Sioux City, please drop off during office hours, 9am-4pm
This would be a good time to review your disaster plan and to re-stock your “safe place” and to encourage your family, neighbors and church family to do the same.
Grace and Peace,
Catie and John Newman
IAUMC Disaster Response Coordinators
712-899-4067, phone or text
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