Gazette Daily News Briefing, April 4
This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette Digital News Desk, and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, April 4.
You might want to find a comfortable spot in your severe weather safe space again. According to the National Weather Service, the Eastern Iowa area will again see some stormy weather on Tuesday. Meteorologists are predicting multiple rounds of storms as the day goes on, starting from a bit after noon and into the evening. These storms are predicted to again move quickly, at roughly 50 to 70 mph, and they will also have the potential to produce heavy wind, rain, hail, and potentially tornadoes. When all of that is not happening, the high temperature is predicted to be 68 degrees.
As Eastern Iowa residents recover from Friday’s tornado outbreak, one of the new concerns is clearing debris ahead of another band of storms expected Tuesday.
Continuing to get debris picked up or covered “so that it doesn’t become airborne flying missiles” is the goal before Tuesday’s storms, said Dave Wilson, Johnson County Emergency Management Coordinator. Wilson said a lot of progress has been made already.
The Iowa Department of Transportation is assisting with clean up in Hills and Coralville to speed the process along, Wilson said. He added that some debris from the storm’s path in Keokuk County landed in Johnson County.
Friday’s tornado outbreak left behind widespread damage in Eastern Iowa. The National Weather Service’s Quad Cities bureau confirmed 16 tornadoes as of Monday afternoon. It’s expected the final tornado number will be in the 20s.
At least 11 injuries were reported, with no known fatalities.
Linn County’s historic “Blue Bridge” on Bertram Road was damaged Monday when crews tried to lift it and move it to the Indian Creek Nature Center and likely is not salvageable.
Crews were lifting the bridge off its foundation when the bridge structure twisted, county officials said in a news release
The Linn County Secondary Road Department does not anticipate the bridge can be saved, but engineering contractors will evaluate the structure to make a final determination.
No one was injured in the bridge collapse. Bertram Road remains closed to traffic.
The nearby nature center was planning to use the 146-year-old bridge — a registered historic structure — to bridge a ravine on its trail system.
The steel truss bridge, the oldest in Linn County, was built in 1876 and has a timber surface. The bridge was painted blue in 1991.
A Tama County man suffered severe burns on one-third of his body in a Dec. 8 explosion at the C6-Zero plant, where he worked as a contractor, according to a lawsuit filed in Iowa County.
Kelly Regenold and his wife, Tammy Courbat, filed the suit March 21 against C6-Zero Iowa, C6-Zero Holdings and Heartland Crush LLC, the company that owns the Marengo building where the blast happened.
“The explosion blew Plaintiff off of a ladder and across the floor of the building. The subsequent fire destroyed the building and Plaintiff barely escaped with his life,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff was taken by ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics where he was admitted for severe burns over 30 to 39% of his body, plus other injuries caused by the explosion and fire.”
Regenold is the second person working at C6-Zero to announce suffering major injuries in the explosion and fire. A GoFundMe page was set up soon after the fire for Cody Blasberg, who was severely burned and had to temporarily be put on a ventilator because of his injuries.
