Gazette Daily News Briefing, April 1 and April 2
Welcome to the weekend!
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Saturday, April 1, and Sunday, April 2..
The weird Spring weather interlude will conclude Saturday, with some light snow, rain, and cold temperatures. Sunday will be back to some normal, thankfully boring, sunshine. According to the National Weather Service there will be a chance of rain and snow showers before 8 a.m. and then a chance of snow for about an hour after in Eastern Iowa Saturday morning. It will be cloudy through mid morning, before gradually clearing, with a high near 46 degrees. It will be breezy, with wind gusts getting as high as 45 mph.
Sunday it should be sunny, with a high near 65 degrees. The gusts are also predicted to drop to 35 mph.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is activating state disaster assistance for 7 Iowa Counties, as tornado-producing storms whipped through Eastern Iowa Friday night, leaving damage in several communities, but thankfully no reported deaths so far, in their wake.
Coralville and Hills were the most severely hit in Johnson and Linn Counties, with damage to several buildings within their city limits. Downed trees temporarily blocked Highway 6 and a semi-trailer truck was flipped on its back.In nearby Solon, trees were also downed onto homes and vehicles, a farmhouse was damaged, and part of the roof was blown off of El Sol Mexican Restaurant downtown.
The Coralville Recreation Center at 1506 Eighth Street is serving as an emergency shelter for those displaced by the storm. A tornado that touched down near the intersection of 23rd Avenue and 9th Street in Coralville smashed windows and downed trees in mere minutes as the storms whipped through the area at 60 mph. Coralville Mayor Foster said only minor injuries have been reported so far.
After the storms rumbled through, many Iowans came out to help their neighbors clean up, and the number one concern for many without power was trying to find a way to watch the Iowa Hawkeye women’s basketball game to come that night. For those who found a way, they were not disappointed.
Caitlin Clark scored 41 points, and third-ranked Iowa stunned No. 1 South Carolina, 77-73, in an NCAA women’s basketball national-semifinal thriller before a sellout crowd of 19,288 Friday night at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
The Hawkeyes, in a rare Final Four appearance for the program, snapped South Carolina’s 42-game winning streak. They overcame a clear size difference, with the Gamecock’s outrebounding Iowa by a massive 24 rebounds, much of them on the offensive end.
Clark continued her dominance, scoring or assisting on 75 percent of Iowa’s points, and all of Iowa’s points in the pivotal 4th quarter.
Iowa will now face No. 9 ranked LSU for the national championship at 2:30 Sunday afternoon on ABC. But they already will go down in Iowa history on a very strange weather day at the end of March.
Have a good weekend everyone. Stay safe out there.
