Unconfirmed tornado kills one, hurts another near Adair overnight

ADAIR, Iowa - One person is dead and another is injured following an unconfirmed tornado that touched down early Wednesday morning just south of Adair.

"After midnight into the early morning hours we had some large hail around Ft. Dodge and a reported tornado near Adair, but unfortunately a confirmed death and one injury," said WHO Channel 13 meteorologist Jeriann Ritter.

Calls came in to the Adair County Sheriff's Office just before 2 a.m. about an unconfirmed tornado causing a possible death and an injury at 1088 Elk Avenue, about a half mile southeast of the Adair city limits in Adair County.

Investigators say 74-year-old Linda Brownlee was found dead at the location.

Seventy-eight-year-old Harold Brownlee was found with severe injuries and was flown to a Des Moines hospital by air ambulance.

Officials from the National Weather Service say reports of a tornado near the border of Adair and Guthrie counties came in just after 1:30 a.m.

N.W.S. teams will examine the damage from the storm to figure out of it was a tornado or straight-line winds that caused the damage.

"Right, at this point we don’t know if it was straight-line winds, microburst or tornado, they’ll be here to do their site survey and once we get that done then we’ll have a better idea of what caused the damage. We do have one house that’s destroyed and we do have two other residences that received minor damage and several outbuildings, basically within a two-mile stretch here north and south along Elk Avenue," said Adair County Emergency Manager Bob Kempf

There are reports a truck on Interstate 80 was blown into the median.

Photos WHO-TV 13


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