Dave Reinig owns a large farm, a little under 2 miles north of Little Sioux, Iowa. In the past, he's witnessed tornadoes near his place, but they never brought any damage. That changed on Thursday when a tornado struck his property for the first time.
The property manager was there when the tornado hit. She told KMTV that she received the tornado warning on her phone, then another warning, and left with her granddaughter for a neighbor's house. She watched the tornado form and hit the farm.
Another neighbor, Thomas Pekarek, filmed the tornado as it hit the Reinig farm.
KMTV got a tour from Dave around his property. We saw trees twisted, trailers thrown, barns flattened, a home sliding off its foundation, and debris strewn in neighboring fields.
Dave reflected on the damage he saw, including several semi-trailers that were thrown, “Those semi-trailers have gotta be the thing that most catches your attention. They weigh 10,000 pounds apiece thereabouts, and throw them around like nothing. It just boggles my mind.”
The National Weather Service in Omaha surveyed the damage and rated the tornado a high-end EF-1, with winds up to 105 mph, the strongest of five tornadoes in the viewing area. The other four included two EF-0 tornadoes in Fremont and Page Counties, and two tornadoes in Fremont and Audubon Counties that were filmed but left no damage.
The Little Sioux area is no stranger to tornadoes. On June 11, 2008, an EF-3 tornado went north of Reinig's place right into the Little Sioux Boy Scout Ranch. Tragically, four Boy Scouts lost their lives. (Read more about the tornado here).
The tornado was part of a wider storm system that brought one-to-two-inch hail to the Omaha and Lincoln metro areas, causing much damage in Lincoln, according to residents. In Oklahoma, an EF-4 tornado leveled homes near Enid, north of Oklahoma City.
For Reinig, the clean-up has begun, and he's thankful that no one was hurt in Thursday's tornado.
"A lot of damage, nobody got hurt...It’s just a matter of a lot of cleanup. Everything here is replaceable...We’re getting through it. Neighbors, friends, everyone’s been pitching in and cleaning up."
