Tornado damage at a University of Iowa Research Lab in Coralville, IowaPhoto: University of Iowa
(Des Moines, IA) -- Iowans continue to add up damage from recent storms and tornadoes. Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director John Benson the March 31st storms that spawned multiple tornadoes damaged or destroyed upwards of 600 homes and other structures across the state. He says the damaged stretched from Keokuk County to Washington County, then Johnson County, Cedar County, and Delaware County. Hundreds of structures were damaged in the Johnson County city of Coralville.
Dozens of counties are covered under a state disaster declaration. Benson says they're now trying to determine if the damage meets the threshold for a federal disaster declaration. He says they'll be compiling state for FEMA and the Small Business Administration. He notes a lot of the tornado damage is insured loss, but the federal programs aim to apply to uninsured damages.
In addition to the storms March 31st, strong storms April 4th caused hail damage from southwest to northeast Iowa. Benson says they are gathering data about hail damage this week.