VINTON, Iowa - The clean-up is continuing a day after powerful storms packing winds of more than 100 mph hit central and eastern Iowa, knocking over trees and power lines and leaving thousands without electricity. Alliant Energy says fewer than 16,000 customers are still without power Tuesday. Most Widespread, Damaging Wind Event in 13 Years Meteorologists from the National Weather Service sent teams out Monday to survey damage across the state. As storms moved through Marshall and Tama Counties, meteorologists estimate the system produced winds of 80-105 mph. A survey team in Benton County estimates that winds of 110-130 mph tore through Vinton and Garrison early Monday morning. The survey crew in Vinton noted that nearly every tree in town had significant damage or was snapped. The National Weather Service say Monday’s storm is the strongest to move through the area since June of 1998, when a line of storms produced widespread wind damage in Williamsburg, Iowa City and Washington. Benton County Towns Hit Hard About 4:30 a.m. Monday, strong winds ripped through Vinton, snapping trees, downing power lines and ripping shingles off roofs. The storms also knocked a smokestack off a hospital in Vinton, punching a gaping hole in the side of a building, a hospital spokesman said. “It’s a disaster here in Vinton,” said Tedd Kipper, chief operating officer at Virginia Gay Hospital in the Eastern Iowa town of about 5,200. “They had to clear a way for us to get to the hospital this morning. Just about every street has trees and limbs down and power lines down.” A church on the southern edge of the city had a large section of its roof missing. Several homes also had sections of roof missing, Kipper said. The smokestack punched a 10-foot by 10-foot hole in the hospital’s rehabilitation center and affected one part of the inpatient unit. There was damage to the roof of the hospital’s dialysis unit. No one was hurt or injured. “We’re on emergency generated power and we continue to treat patients,” Kipper said. AERIAL VIDEO: Vinton Storm Damage ‘Significant’ Damage at Iowa Braille School in Vinton The Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton sustained significant damage in the early morning storm Monday, school Superintendent Patrick Clancy said. No damage estimate was available yet, but Clancy expected clean up will take days or weeks. “There is damage to every building out here,” Clancy said. “It is significant.” About 100 trees on the 150-year-old campus were brought down by the storm or will have to be torn down due to damage, Clancy said. Some buildings sustained only minor damage, like broken windows or some missing shingles. But Old Main, the oldest building on campus and the school’s administrative building, likely will need a new roof, Clancy said. “The roof, the north and south sides are basically gone, and the central part is significantly damaged,” he said. Engineers are on campus to determine if Old Main remains structurally sound other than needing a new roof, which Clancy believes will be the case. Administrative offices have been evacuated from Old Main for now, Clancy said. Also, seven students from around Iowa with visual impairments were on the Braille School campus for a weeklong program when the storm hit, Clancy said. They were staying in the residential portion of Old Main and have been evacuated to a different building. It’s possible the students will be bused home early since the campus is without power, Clancy said. Another campus building, the Cottage dormitory, sustained significant storm damage. That building is rented by AmeriCorps and used as a dorm for AmeriCorps volunteers. About 140 volunteers were on campus this week for training and are helping with the storm cleanup, Clancy said. The seven students in the Braille School weeklong program and all of the AmeriCorps volunteers took refuge in the tunnel system underneath the Braille School campus during the storm, and there were no injuries, Clancy said. “The tunnel system connects nearly all of our buildings and it’s part of our storm warning system,” he said. “People go to the tunnels when necessary, so it’s good they did this time.” University of Iowa Facilities Management sent crews to help assess damage and determine if it can provide assistance to the Iowa Braille School, UI officials said Monday. UI workers are poised to provide power generators, electricians and ground crews to help clear storm debris and other assistance, if needed. Vinton Mayor Says Cleanup Could Take Weeks Nearly Every Home in Dysart Damaged Almost every house in Dysart took some damage in a strong storm that passed through at about 4:30 a.m. Monday. The winds tossed a grain bin on to Wilson Street, tore the roof from Calvary Baptist Church, toppled trees in the city park and damaged a school roof, said Tim Ruroden, police chief. He said no injuries have been reported. "I don't think there is a home in Dysart that doesn't have a tree down. Nobody was spared, but nobody was hurt," said Mayor Don Lyons. After the storm, which lasted about half an hour, residents began to assess the damage, said city council member Pam Thiele. "We went around checking on neighbors, elderly neighbors," Thiele said. Electricity to the town is knocked out, the police chief said. In several places in town, power lines dangle into the streets marked by yellow caution tape. The winds knocked a tree into the front of Mike and Julie Schmidt's home at 608 Main St. Julie Schmidt said she was up at the time because her daughter had a nightmare about 15 minutes before the storm. She went to her daughter's upstairs room to comfort her and noticed the lightning and strange sounds. They decided to head to a lower level. "We heard the crash on the way down the stairs," she said. Part of the tree broke through a front room. Widespread Power Outages Alliant Energy asked customers in Marshall, Tama, Benton and northern Linn County to conserve energy usage due to Monday morning’s storm that thousands without power and miles of power line down. About 27,000 customers remained without power at 3:30 p.m. Monday afternoon out of nearly 40,000 without power at the peak of outages. In areas where the worst damage took place, it could be midweek before power is restored, Alliant indicated in a statement released late Monday afternoon. Crews will be switching electric feeds to restore customers as quickly as possible, the utility said, so non-damaged equipment in the region will be taxed by additional customers and warm weather. The main area of damage stretches from east of I-35 to the Mississippi River, Alliant Energy reported, with the worst damage to the electric system is in Marshall, Tama, Benton, and northern Linn Counties. The damage included major equipment within substations that serve Clutier and Gawin, and nearly 500 damaged utility poles. “The damage in some communities from these winds is consistent with the damage from a tornado. However, due to the straight-line winds, this damage stretches miles and miles,” says Vern Gebhart, Vice President of Energy Delivery for Alliant Energy. “We have all resources within our company, as well as additional contractor crews focused on restoring power to impacted customers. We appreciate your patience and assure you we won’t stop until all customers are restored.” Nearly 200 crew members from across the state have either arrived or will soon be arriving from throughout the Alliant Energy service territory to supplement the crews already working in the storm-damaged area, Gebhart said. This includes crews from Alliant Energy, ITC Midwest, and contractor crews supporting the efforts of both companies. Gas Leak Forces Garwin Evacuation The Tama County town of Garwin evacuated most of its 585 residents Monday morning after a gas leak was discovered at an apartment complex, Fire Chief Tim Laffoon said. Laffoon said his pager went off shortly after 4 a.m., not long before strong winds roared through town knocking down trees and ripping off roofs. Alliant Energy personnel shut off the gas by 9 a.m., and residents were allowed to return to begin cleaning up debris. “You could smell gas all over town,” said resident Rick Marks, 27, who spent a couple of hours in Marshalltown diner before residents were allowed to return. Marks said the evacuation notices were generally delivered by word-of-mouth. “This town runs on volunteers,” he said. Marks said he awoke to find wind-driven rain “gushing in through my living room window.” Laffoon said several large grain bins were destroyed at the Mid-Iowa Coop elevator, whose office was nearly buried under storm debris. Trucks Overturned, School Roof Torn Off During Storm Near Urbana Teachers are cleaning up after high winds ripped the roof off their soon-to-be new elementary school. Urbana’s Intermediate Elementary School on West Main Street is part of several new projects for the district. High winds tore the roof off the new end of the building. The storm also caused a water main to break flooding some of the classrooms as well as a small gas leak. Principal Jon Hasleiet has only had the new building for about ten days. “We already have a lot going on this is kind of crunchtime for us,” Hasleiet said, “We didn’t expect adding a new roof would be part of the plan.” Hasleiet is staying optimistic the building will be cleaned up and ready to go for the start of the new school year. “Every teacher that teaches here in this section of the building has been in here to help or survey the damage,” he said. “Things are going to get taken care of and we’re going to be ok.” Fierce winds overturned at least three semi-trailer trucks and tossed at least five smaller pull-behind trailers across Interstate 380 Monday near Urbana. The pull-behind trailers littered the east ditch, having tumbled there from Patten Equipment Sales on the north edge of the Benton County town. A couple other trailers wound up in the interstate median, and several others were damaged on the west side of I-380, where the business is located. Two of the semi-trailer trucks were flipped into the ditch just south of there, near the northbound exit ramp for Urbana. A couple miles south, near mile marker 39, another semi was on its side in the east ditch. “I’m not aware of any injuries, but right now we’re unable to find the (semi) drivers,” Iowa State Patrol Trooper Darin Snedden said. AERIAL VIDEO: Center Point-Urbana Storm Damage State Disaster Declared for Tama County At his weekly news conference Monday, Gov. Terry Branstad said he had authorized a state disaster declaration for Tama County due to the loss of electricity and the need for cooling stations given the expectation that the weather will get hot and humid. “They’ve lost a lot of electricity. This is going to be a hot day and there’s need of generators that the state owns. We’ll do what we can to provide generators so we can provide cool places for people in that county that are without electricity,” the governor said. Branstad also noted there was “significant damage” reported to the Iowa Braille and Sight-Saving School in Vinton. “We want to do all that we can in these disaster situations to provide assistance and help as quickly as possible,” Branstad said during his weekly news conference. Storms in Garrison, Clutier Take Out Fire Stations Clutier's fire station was leveled by the storm. "We got here this morning, and it was pretty much flat," said Fire Chief Blake Pearson. Firefighters from La Porte City were sent to cover the Clutier department's territory in case of an emergency. The winds also damaged the grain elevator across from the station, tore off one wall of the mobile home that serves as the town's post office, turned over vehicles and demolished a machine shop. One home on Main Street had its rubber roof blown off, and rain soaked the inside, said Mayor Pro Tem Arlene Vondracek. "There are trees that went on houses," she said. She said damage to most homes appears to be limited, although countless trees and a few garages and sheds were knocked over. Firefighters in Garrison wanted to respond immediately to reports of serious storm damage in that Benton County community Monday morning. But there was one significant problem holding them back. The straight line winds one National Weather Service representative estimated at 100+ miles per hour leveled the town’s volunteer fire station. So other nearby communities had to respond while Garrison firefighters started to dig out their rescue equipment from underneath the rubble. Garrison volunteer Chief Steve Meyer said five trucks got buried by the collapsing fire station. He was at home in his basement and listening to a police scanner could tell the department was in trouble. “It came across the radio the station was flattened on our trucks and that was the first indication I had how serious it was,” Meyer said. The chief estimated damage to the fire equipment at $50,000. He said rebuilding the fire station itself would probably be a $300,000 job. Firefighters themselves had done much of the original construction work in 1994 and in 2007 with a major addition. Chief Meyer estimated 90% of all the buildings in town sustained at least some wind damage. For about 20% of all buildings, the damage was significant. The town’s library lost a roof that hours later was still blocking a street. Many homes sustained damage when trees and limbs got tossed about by the high winds. John Fowler refurbished a downtown building for a home. Surveying the damage, he didn’t know if he was ready or able to rebuild. “I don’t know whether I have the energy or not,” Fowler said adding “I’ll have to look at the extent of damage.” Despite the extensive damage in Garrison, no one was hurt. Firefighters said they’re ready to rebuild their station house as soon as they clean up the debris and raise the money for a new home. AERIAL VIDEO: Garrison Storm Damage WHO-TV's Radar Destroyed WHO-TV’s weather radar tower was also destroyed during the storm, with parts thrown into a nearby home’s yard near the town of Alleman, north of the Des Moines metro. KCCI’s weather radar and other TV station transmitting towers near Alleman were not damaged.