CORNING, Iowa — The Adams County Sheriff's Office has identified the woman who died in Corning, Iowa as a result of Tuesday's severe storms.
46-year-old Monica Zamarron was killed when her car was "blown off the roadway" near Highway 148 and Joshua Tree Avenue as a tornado ripped through Adams County Tuesday, according to a press release.
The storm left down powerlines, crushed wind turbines and many homes damaged in its wake. The National Weather Service has dispatched a survey crew to assess storm damage. As of Wednesday afternoon, a preliminary EF rating has not been released.
Residents told Local 5 that the tornado and its effects were like nothing they would ever expect.
"Since I've been alive, there hasn't been anything this crazy," Devin Greenwalt said. "When [the tornado] was building down south of our house, southwest, it started out really big and you could tell when it hit the ground. It just turned black."
Greenwalt also mentioned the tornado was deafening while it spun across Adams County.
Scary visuals captured Tuesday night showed a tornado tearing through their city of 1,500 people, leveling houses and buildings with ease.
"When it was building down south of our house, southwest, it started out really big and you could tell when it hit the ground," Greenwalt said. "It just turned black."
Winds ripped down power lines, flipped over buses and sucked roofs off of homes.
For Greenwalt, the violent storm came as a shock. Many families lost their homes completely and spent their Wednesday rummaging through the rubble to see what they could save. Some erected tents along their driveway.
"I had no idea. We were like, 'Oh, it's going to miss us, it's going to miss us.' It didn't miss us," Greenwalt said.
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The tornado also didn't miss wind turbines.
The system bent multiple wind turbines in half, scattering rotor blades and metal shelling across farmland — even up to a half mile away from the turbine's foundation.
"You could see the tornado coming, and then all of a sudden, no more windmill," Greenwalt told Local 5.
In the heart of the city, Tuesday's deadly tornado also shredded many homes and buildings, leaving homeowners stepping through the rubble Wednesday to recover any belongings that survived the storm.
"It's just devastating, you go up to Greenfield. We've been up there, clear up to Carbon," he said. "Down into Villisca, by Hacklebarney [Woods County Park]. Everything is just destroyed."
It's a moment the Corning community will, unfortunately, never forget.
"The power these things have when the tornado comes through, you're just in the wrath of it," Greenwalt said. "You got nothing, there's nothing you can do."