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Oct. 2, 2019Red Oak, IA |  By: Jenny James

Red Oak, IA escapes damage from tornado

By all accounts, southwest Iowa escaped damage from a barrage of severe storms Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Fast moving storm cells touched off tornado warnings in Pawnee and Johnson counties in southeast Nebraska at around 2 p.m., then moved rapidly to the northeast. A tornado watch was issued for most of the area at 2:45 p.m., followed by the first tornado warnings for Fremont, Mills, Montgomery and Page counties about five minutes later.

Montgomery County Emergency Management reported a tornado touchdown a mile south-southwest of Red Oak shortly before 3:30 p.m.

Montgomery County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Hamman says spotters were activated in his county with threatening weather.

"Between that period of the watch and the first warning, we deployed spotters to the field, where we had at least one or two spotters report a possible tornado or at least debris in the air that was visible.  At that time, that's right when the Weather Service extended that tornado warning to include Red Oak.  And we made the decision to go ahead and sound the siren for Red Oak."

Hamman says no damage was reported from the tornado. He says conditions were perfect for severe weather throughout Tuesday.

"It was definitely pretty muggy, pretty moist, outside and it definitely felt like something was going to happen.  They've been talking about heavy rainfall for the last several days.  Not so much severe up until this morning really, but the conditions are ripe.  We live in Iowa.  I say it all the time.  It can happen any time of the year.  And here we are October 1st and we have a tornado warning."

Storm spotters also confirmed a tornado touchdown three miles east of Shenandoah at around 3:35 p.m., but again, no damage was reported.