Possible Tornado Touches Down In Rural Mahaska County

Damage to buildings along Suffolk Road, just west of Oskaloosa

Oskaloosa, Iowa – For days, the National Weather Service had warned of the potential of severe weather reaching from Kansas into Iowa. That severe weather found it’s way to Mahaska County last night.

The day’s watches and warnings started off with a Tornado watch being issued for the county, going from 5:00 pm until midnight. Then the warnings started rolling in at 8:15 pm, starting off with severe thunderstorm warnings and eventually capping off with a tornado warning for the southern part of the county.

With many events taking place in Oskaloosa, such as the final nights performance of the middle school play, the loss of power to the building initially put a stop to the play and threatened to end the show prematurely. The students didn’t let Mother Nature get the upper hand. Just as the all clear was being given, the performers gathered in the lobby of George Daily Auditorium, in the glow of emergency lighting, to act out the remainder of the final scene to Peter Pan and Wendy.

The power outages were scattered and widespread. Mid-America crews were out in force in the early morning hours, restoring power to places like the town of Beacon.

Daylight brought the scope of damage to many homes, cars and buildings to light.

Downed trees and wires could be found littering sections of Oskaloosa, but once again the damage to the town of Beacon became apparent. The siding on the homes at Century Mobile Home Park looked as though they had been riddled with bullets, but the hundreds of holes had actually been made from the hail stones that had slammed into them. Residents said they could feel their homes moving during the height of the storm.

Cleanup continued at the home of Jeremy and Kristen Van Donselaar Sunday from damage caused by a possible tornado

In the small town of Wright, a possible twister made its way across the landscape. The National Weather Service and Mahaska County Emergency Management are still doing assessments. Confirmation of what type of weather caused the damage will be made available in the near future.

The home of Jeremy and Kristen Van Donselaar was hit by strong winds that blew out all the windows on the west side of the home and lifted the roof off a garage on the back side of the home. The roof of a grain bin, at the back of the property, was lifted which exposed the corn inside to the torrential rains.

Friends and neighbors lined their semi-trucks up to help haul off the grain. Meanwhile the family cleaned up debris strewn about the yard and inside the home.

The home is owned by Ralph Van Donselaar, who owns another home just south of that residence; which suffered nearly the same fate as the first. The second property had windows blown out on the west and north sides of the home. There had also been a large portion of the tree that had come down.

The storm seemed to have it out for the Van Donselaars, for as it traveled east it hit Ralph’s residence nearly a mile away. It tossed debris into the unplanted fields along the way. There, the storm took aim at his machine shed, knocking the west wall inwards. Then it moved on to his house, blowing out the windows as well.

Ralph’s son and daughter-in-law, Jeff and Vicki Van Donselaar, who live just a quarter of a mile north of the apparent damage path suffered damage to some of their out buildings.

If you suffered damage during the storms last night, Mahaska County Emergency Manager Jamey Robinson asks that you please report it. He has set up a page on the Emergency Management website to make it as easy as possible to pass along the information.

More pictures from Saturday’s storm can be found HERE.