City beat up by severe weather

FORT MADISON – A strong thunderstorm that rolled through the area did significant tree and power line damage Tuesday evening.
The storm prompted weather sirens to be activated in Lee County as a possible tornado or storm rotation was radar-indicated near Keosauqua and again about nine miles west of Nauvoo, Illinois.
Power was knocked out to homes on the city’s east side and Alliant notified customers that it could be two and a half to three hours before power was restored as an estimate.
A home in the 600 block of Avenue E just missed heavy damage when a large tree twisted at the base and fell toward the home, but seems to have missed the main part of the home’s porch.
Multiple power lines were knocked to the ground by tree limbs and Fort Madison Fire & Rescue was busy throughout the evening addressing the issue, as was City Public Works.

The Fort Madison City Council meeting was interrupted when power to the building went down, but the meeting continued with cellphone lights.
A tree fell in Victory Park on the north side taking out some fencing near the baseball field, and large trees fell near Central Park blocking Avenue E until neighbors began pulling the trees from the path of vehicles.
The James Block building suffered window damage when lower windows on the building's southwest corner were blown out leaving glass littered on the sidewalk and 8th Street. And the historic Faeth sign on the side of the building near 10th and G, was torn in half and deposited in front of the Fort Madison Area Arts Association door.
Firefighters were called to a home on 33rd Street where a power line was down and a home was suffering smoke damage.
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado warning simultaneously for Lee County predicting heavy debris damage and 70 mph plus wind gusts.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe had several lines of double decker train cars topple over in the wind near the old prison farm by the Lee County Sheriff's office.