March 28, 2024

Storms turn Father’s Day weekend upside down in Taylor County

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BEDFORD – Father’s Day weekend took an unexpected turn for campers at Windmill Lake County Park in rural Taylor County Friday night.

Straight-line winds between 80 and 90 mph ripped through southwest Iowa Friday night, causing a scary scene at Windmill Lake, 9 1/2 miles northwest of Bedford.

Multiple campers were blown into the lake, some were turned on their sides and some were even flipped completely over, while multiple trees were snapped off.

While many of the campers were unsure if it was a tornado or straight-line winds that wreaked havoc on their Father’s Day weekend plans, Kelsey Angle, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines said damage lying in all one direction indicated it was straight-line winds.

“They were really lucky there at the lake, because those trailer houses weren’t secured,” Angle said. “It’s important to have access to weather information and warning information, and have a plan to seek shelter when storms like that approach.”

Angle said a complex of thunderstorms developed across eastern Nebraska and continued to track southeast through western Iowa Friday night. Those winds reached 80-90 mph as the storm system moved through Taylor County.

Rainfall amounts ranged between 1 and 2 inches in some locations across southwest Iowa.

Jean Minor of Clarinda and her husband were in their Keystone Challenger camper Friday night when the winds flipped the trailer upside down.

“It was quite a ride,” said Minor. “It was here and it was over. It probably wasn’t five minutes before everything was totally destroyed.”

Another camper described the winds rocking his camper back and forth and said he began praying.

Minor said she lost her bearings of where she was when her camper flipped over and found herself pinned underneath the bed.

Her husband and several other campers helped her get out from underneath the bed, but her biggest concern was one of the campers that had gone into Windmill Lake.

“There was a lady with three little kids,” Minor said. “Hers had gone into the water and she had gotten out of the top and had her three little kids out there with a 4-month-old, I think it was, trying to save it. It was pretty scary.”

Response was quick to the scene, as area fire departments and ambulance crews rushed to Windmill Lake.

Minor said someone brought out a boat and went out onto the lake to rescue the woman and her three children.

Crews worked to remove the campers from the lake late Friday night. One of the campers disintegrated as it was pulled from the lake, leaving just the trailer and few remnants from the rest of the camper lying on the shore.

“The gal that went into the water with her camper, she said it was like a freight train,” Minor said. “Our concern was getting the little ones taken care of. We camp out here all the time. It’s just a freak deal that it happened.

“It looks a little different right now,” she continued. “That’s not the way you want to remember Father’s Day.”