Officials in Madison County, Iowa, on Sunday identified the dead, including two young children, lost to at least one powerful tornado south of Des Moines.
At a news conference, Madison County Emergency Manager Diogenes Ayala identified the deceased in his jurisdiction as Melissa Bazley, 63; Rodney Clark, 64; Cecilia Lloyd, 72; Michael Bolger, 37; Kenly Bolger, 5; and Owen Bolger, 2.
He said those six victims came from three households near the town of Winterset.
Another death attributed to the severe weather Saturday was reported in nearby Lucas County. The identity of that victim was unavailable. Both rural areas are about 45 minutes to an hour south of Des Moines by car.
Officials reported four injuries in Madison County, one in Lucas County and two in Polk County after thunderstorms and suspected multiple tornadoes swept through the region in the afternoon and the evening and overnight.
"The last 12 hours have been some of the most difficult times of our community has faced," Gov. Kim Reynolds said at Sunday's news conference. "We are stronger together in times of need."
She issued a disaster proclamation for Madison County late Saturday to free up state funds for response and recovery.
The Madison County Emergency Management Agency said in a news release overnight that there was "widespread damage to both home and properties." The tornado southeast of the county seat, Winterset, touched down about 4:30 p.m., it said.
About 52 residences were damaged or destroyed as the tornado cleared a path that authorities believe spanned nearly 14 miles, Ayala said at the news conference.
The National Weather Service, which depends on in-person examination of the aftermath of severe weather events, said official confirmation of the Madison County twister and others in the region was not expected until later Sunday or some time Monday.
The tornado may have touched down, skipped and touched down again, with "a couple different segments," said Rod Donavon, a meteorologist in the NWS Des Moines office.
Colleagues were on the ground in the Winterset area Sunday conducting what they call "interrogation" to confirm the tornado's presence, force and path size, he said.
An initial National Weather Service look at imagery from the ground suggests it was at least an EF3 tornado, which would put minimum winds at 158 mph. The office tweeted Sunday that at least three thunderstorms produced an unknown number of tornadoes Saturday.
A statement from the National Weather Service's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, said Sunday that its experts believed at least three large tornadoes struck Iowa, in Madison and Lucas counties.
Daryl E. Herzmann, an Iowa State University weather forecast and weather observation expert, said that because twisters feed on the unsettled atmosphere often produced when warm air marches north in spring and collides with colder air, the outbreak of such powerful tornadoes in early March is quite rare.
Tornado season in Iowa usually starts in April, he said. "Having something like this strike in early March is unprecedented," he said.
"People weren’t necessarily on guard for this," Herzmann said.
The weather service said its initial "severe weather outlook" for the area was issued five days before the destruction and that a statement warning of "enhanced risk" was distributed Saturday before the storms erupted.
Tornado warnings for the region went out, on average, 20 minutes before any twisters touched down, the national office said in its statement Saturday. But the agency was beset by an unidentified technical glitch that delayed some warnings to television stations and residents' cellphones by up to seven minutes.
"A technical issue caused a delay of between 2-7 minutes for some transmissions," the NWS said. "Systems engineers quickly took action as soon as the problem was detected, and the forecast office live-tweeted warnings and information, and continued partner support until the danger passed."
Herzmann of Iowa State said he believes the delays were unlikely to have affected lives Saturday, especially because warnings were going out in real time through alternative platforms, such as Twitter.
But, he noted, "they say seconds matter."
President Joe Biden was briefed about the destruction Sunday, according to the White House. He directed his homeland security secretary and the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to remain in close contact with state and local officials and to offer federal help where it is needed.
