ADAIR – One person is confirmed dead following a tornado that struck the southeast part of Adair overnight. This happened near 110th Street and Elk Avenue in Adair; south of Interstate 80. 74-year-old Linda Lee Brownlee died after the early Wednesday morning storm ripped through Adair. Her husband, 78-year-old Harold Brownlee, is in a Des Moines hospital in critical but stable condition. This is the first tornado-related fatality in Iowa since 2014.
“We are a small community and there will be all kinds of people wanting to help and we will get through it together,” says Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater.
Help is already showing up. Friends, family and neighbors have been coming in and out of the gravel road in Adair since the storm hit.
Scott Jorgensen’s farm found itself right in the middle of the path the twister took. “Some of it will have to sit some of it you know we do the insurance process we’re going to have to go through so is just kindling and stuff that’s blown all over.”
He knows the clean up won’t happen in a day. But piece by piece they’ll pick up what Mother Nature left behind. “Well start will the little stuff and start with the fields. I’d like to get it up before the crop start getting too high so we can see what we’re dealing with.”
It will be a team effort because Jorgensen says there’s no way he’d be able to get back on his feet alone. “No….what would you say to the people out here helping? There’s no words…no words you keep it in mind and hope you have a chance to help them back.”