Tornadoes Trounce Iowa Towns

One Dead, Dozens Of Farms, Homes Damaged By Late Afternoon Twisters

(AP) 
Tornadoes are rare this late in the year. There have been 23 November tornadoes in Iowa since 1950, all but six of them recorded in the years 1975 and 1988, according to Weather Service records. Last weekend, however, another tornado ripped through western Kentucky and Southwest Indiana, killing 22 people.

On Saturday, at least two tornadoes hit in Boone County, with major damage in the Boxholm and Pilot Mound areas, a few miles south of Stratford, a dispatcher said. A convenience store in Woodward was also damaged.

Richard Albracht, 59, had headed for his basement in Woodward when he saw shingles start to fly and heard the sirens.

He said he went outside after the storm passed and found several homes damaged and an empty restaurant with only one wall left standing.

"It's pretty bad. There's houses destroyed and roofs off of houses," he said.

John Kiley and his wife were watching television at their home in rural Woodward when they heard the warning.

"I saw it two, three minutes before it hit," Kiley said. "My wife said go to the basement. I said no. We got in the car and went down the road. I looked out, it hit our house."

His house, barn, garage and another building were severely damaged, and many of his sheep were injured, neighbor Doug Jimeson said.

"There were sheep everywhere," Jimeson said.