The year 2024 will long be remembered for severe weather that impacted two area cities, Minden and Greenfield.
The Minden tornado was on April 26, when an EF3 long-track tornado, believed to be multi-vortex, brought severe damage to the southeast edge of town. One person died in that tornado, which National Weather Service forecasters noted was 1,900-yards wide, or just more than one mile in width.
The Minden tornado – which also passed through mainly rural areas of Shelby County before dissipating – was part of an outbreak of tornadoes that struck western portions of Council Bluffs and near other Pottawattamie County towns, and beforehand communities in Omaha, Neb.
The most violent tornado of an outbreak on May 21 struck Greenfield. Tearing a path through the heart of the Adair County town from roughly southwest to northeast, the mid-afternoon EF4 tornado destroyed multiple houses, and caused more than $3 million damange to the Adair County Memorial Hospital. Outside of the city, multiple wind turbines were toppled. The downtown was left unscathed, however, while the popular Tiger Inn drive-in restaurant was open the day after the storm.
There were plenty of warnings before the storm and the potential capabilities of the system that spawned the tornado, even hours beforehand. Much of Iowa, including southwest Iowa, was in a Level 4 (moderate) risk for severe weather by the Storm Prediction Center, in its forecast issued earlier in the day.
Each time, Cass County was able to escape the brunt of the two storms, although there was tree and building damage each time from less-severe cells that passed through the area.
The day after the tornadoes, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds visited Greenfield. Flanked by Adair County Emergency Management coordiantor Jeremy Cooper and state Rep. Ray “Bubba†Sorensen (R-Greenfield), Reynolds spoke about how the area would recover and that its people were resilient and would stick together, like a true community. In her words: "Iowans are strong and resilient, and we will get through this together.'
