Friday night storm hits Wellman hard

WELLMAN — For much of Washington County, a storm front around rush hour Friday night was a worrying, but ultimately low-damage event. Kalona and Riverside saw their fair share of hail, while high winds tore down a billboard, a post office flag and several garbage cans in Washington.

Wellman was a different story. A tornado tore through the western outskirt of town, on a path more or less following Elm Avenue, where the cyclone flattened a handful of houses, sheds, and grain silos.

By 6 p.m., the sky had cleared, and a procession of cars flowed to that side of the city, some of them helping clear debris or herding a loose band of cattle back into shelter, while others took in the damage.

The home of Kari Honsey and Joe Allen was gutted as the storm ripped apart an adjacent shed. Honsey said it was incredibly loud.

“I saw it coming over the hill, so I went into the basement, and covered down there in a safe spot,” she said. “It sounded like a train, and then trees cracking and things hitting the house.”

Her neighbors fared worse. Two nearby homes along the road were flattened, where the storm blew a car, large debris, a power line and an LP tank into adjacent fields. Up the road, it upended a grain elevator one bystander said was brand-new, depositing much of the machinery on top of a truck and crushing some of the nearby silos.

Angela Whetstine was one of those neighbors. She also caught a glimpse of the storm rolling in, calling her family into a basement bathroom when she first saw the cell approaching. She said it hit two minutes later, with enough pressure to pop everyone’s ears and enough destruction to trap them in the space until emergency responders arrived.

Nobody in the home was hurt.

“Water started coming down from the ceiling and we could smell outside, so we knew that wasn’t good,” she said. “We’re still kind of in shock right now … we were just very thankful that we made it in, and nothing caved in on us.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com