FOX Weather Storm Tracker Brandon Copic was in Greenfield, Iowa, after a tornado went through the middle of the town.
GREENFIELD, Iowa – The town of Greenfield in southwest Iowa took a direct hit from a huge tornado Tuesday.
“It’s not good. I can say that much,” FOX Weather Storm Tracker Brandon Copic said. He was one of the first on the scene after the town was destroyed.
“I can’t speak on casualties or anything like that. I’m not emergency management or anything of that sort,” Copic said while being interviewed by FOX Weather Meteorologist Steve Bender. “But most of this town is gone, Steve. There’s no other way to put it. Most of this town’s gone.”
TORNADOES CAUSE DESTRUCTION IN IOWA AS ‘PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION’ UNFOLDS IN MIDWEST
Take a look at the houses in the background on the left and the right. The debris in the foreground looked similar just an hour before.
(Brandon Copic / FOX Weather)
Town in ‘Particularly Dangerous Situation’ Watch
Copic and his storm-tracking teammate rushed to Greenfield to offer first aid.
“It’s a very bad situation. Quite a few people stuck in their homes, injuries. I think it caught some people off guard, it seemed like,” FOX Weather Storm Tracker Corey Gerken said. “But that’s some of the more significant damage that we’ve seen lately. It’s a very bad scenario there right now.
On the way to Greenfield, storm trackers spotted burning wind turbines after a tornado moved through. Homes were torn into small chunks. Only the bare tree trunks still rise higher than the people looking at the damage. Everything else was leveled and spread miles across the landscape. The powerful winds tossed cars.
WATCH: TORNADOES TEAR DOWN WIND TURBINE, CAUSE EXTENSIVE DAMAGE IN IOWA
What used to be a house is now a small bile of boards. The boards from one house run into the next so it is hard to tell what homes they came from. Take a look at the car on the right side.
(Brandon Copic / FOX Weather)
Debris ball dwarfed town
FOX Weather measured the debris signature on radar, it dwarfed the town.
“I think the big concern that we’ve seen from Greenfield and those other debris balls is how large they are. They’re miles in diameter scattering it (debris) ahead,” Bender said. “So this speaks to the intensity and the volatility of this.”
“That was really hard to see on Doppler radar when we measured the debris signature, which was approaching 2-and-a-half, 3 miles wide,” FOX News Meteorologist Adam Klotz said. “And then you saw Greenfield, the whole community of 2,000 people live there, is only 2 miles wide. So, you knew that this just screamed into the community at about 50 mph.”
Storm Tracker Brandon Copic is one of the first on the scene to witness the tornado damage in Greenfield, Iowa.
Bender asked Copic if the tornado spared any part of the town.
“(It went) mostly straight through the center of town,” Copic said. “But the destruction, it’s just it’s bad. It’s bad, but it’s about the people here. The people need help.”
During the interview, survivors started emerging from tornado shelters. They all looked shell-shocked and just wandered from pile to pile. Looking at the homes, it is hard to imagine how anyone made it through. Copic said the NWS gave the town ample warning, giving them time to take cover.
Damage to homes outside of Fontanelle, Iowa, which neighbors Greenfield.
(FOX Weather)
“It came up pretty quick, (NWS) claiming the storm’s moving 50-55 miles an hour. So they’re (tornadoes) coming in quickly. People had a decent warning,” Copic said. “That’s a lot of the things that we’ve talked to people about is that we had sufficient warning. And, thankfully, 99% of the people that we had talked to had a good reaction to that warning and took shelter.
First responders are now on the scene.
The NWS will send a storm survey team to assess the strength of the tornado.