County experienced EF2 tornado Tuesday

NO INJURIES

We had three or four people in here when it came through and they ran to the bathrooms. No one was injured and that’s the important thing.”

Marvin Bricker, owner Agrequip Steel in Houghton

LEE COUNTY – The National Weather Service has officially categorized the tornado that ran from western Lee County near Houghton north Lee, Henry and Des Moines counties to Yarmouth, a strong EF2.
According to Jason Dinwiddie, Lee County Emergency Management coordinator, most of the damage in the county was in the path of the twister which hit a couple businesses on the west edge of Houghton and a couple farmhouses.
“It coulda been a lot worse,” he said. “A lot of homes escaped damage.”
Despite the luck, the state has still issued an emergency declaration for the county, along with five other counties that suffered damage as a result of the storm.
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“I was talking with them early this morning and sending information to them via email to make sure we were included in any assistance programs available for residents.”
Dinwidde said the NWS is still compiling data from the storm.
Marvin Bricker, owner of Agrequip Steel Products in Houghton, said his facility suffered extensive damage but no one was hurt.
“We had three or four people in here when it came through and they ran to the bathrooms. No one was injured and that’s the important thing,” he said.
He said insurance adjusters haven’t been to the site yet, so he didn’t know what the cost of the damage would be.
“Yeah, I don’t know that, but the good thing is we can do a lot of the work ourselves so that will help with some things.”
The facility lost the northeast facing of one of the manufacturing buildings and has debris from grain bins strewn about the property. To the north across Hwy 16, debris is scattered in what is a clear path of the direction of the twister.
New London, Yarmouth, and Mediapolis also suffered heavy damage as the twister moved its way in a northeasterly direction across the rural areas of Lee, Des Moines, and Henry counties, and further north.
Bricker, who’s been with Agrequip for more than 40 years, said it’s the worst storm to hit that area since a heavy snowstorm collapsed a roof on one of the buildings.
Mark Bousselot, Fort Madison Public Works director, said one of the emergency storm siren poles blew over in Victory Park and landed on the pickle ball courts damaging some fencing and possibly a court.
"We cleaned them up and cautioned off two courts we’re trying to keep people off of," Bousselot said. "We won't do anything else until the insurance adjuster comes down to look at the damage. Then we’ll look ahead to clean up and restoration. As long as everyone stays out of those two courts, we’ll leave the rest open. There’s still four they can play on.""
Bousselot said the campground in Rodeo Park had a couple trees down but no major damage.
"We did lose a ballpark light at the Rodeo ball fields."
There was a power outage in the city that knocked out traffic controls at the 18^th and 20^th intersections on 61, but power was restored relative quickly to the area.