Greenfield, Iowa tornado: Death count unclear as cleanup begins

GREENFIELD, Iowa (FOX 9) - Search efforts are continuing in Greenfield, Iowa after the city was leveled by a tornado Tuesday night, leaving an unknown number of residents dead.

Tuesday night, Iowa State Patrol said multiple deaths were reported after a tornado ripped through Greenfield. As of Wednesday morning, authorities still couldn't give a definitive count on the death toll, saying they didn't want to release a number until they were sure.

Wednesday, crews were continuing to sift through rubble in the small city of 2,000 residents. Officials also say at least a dozen people were injured in the severe weather.

The National Weather Service says, so far, they have confirmed at least EF-3 damage in Greenfield. But they say evaluation is continuing and that could change in the coming days. EF-3 tornadoes are classified as winds of 136 mph to 165 mph.

Shelters have been set up for residents and a local school has been turned into a makeshift hospital, due to damage to the local hospital. The night before, authorities were using a lumberyard as a triage center.

FOX Weather Storm Tracker Brandon Copic reports that most of the town has been destroyed. "Most of this town is gone. There's no other way to put it. Most of this town's gone."

People looking to help the community can drop off food and water at the Department of Transportation (DOT) Facility located east of Greenfield. The address is 2313 Highway 92, Greenfield, IA 50849.

Greenfield is about 50 miles southwest of Des Moines and 75 miles east of Omaha.

Damage across the state

Multiple potential tornadoes were reported in Iowa on Tuesday afternoon, as the state along with parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin were under a significant tornado watch on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday evening, 33 tornadoes had been reported across the Midwest, mostly in central and western Iowa.

Along with Greenfield, the National Weather Service in Des Moines received reports of tornadoes from Macksburg, Winterset, Norwalk, Alleman, Cambridge, Nevada, and Pleasant Hill throughout the late afternoon. All of these locations are within 50 miles of Des Moines, mostly to the west of the city.

Along with those reports, FOX Weather captured video earlier in the afternoon of a tornado moving near Carbon, Iowa, about 60 miles east of Omaha. Another video also shows what appears to be a tornado in the Red Oak, Iowa area.

A professional weather chaser also shared a video of a tornado destroying a windmill near Williamson, about 40 miles from the Missouri border.