州警方周三宣布，一场强大的龙卷风袭击了爱荷华州的格林菲尔德，造成4人死亡，至少35人受伤。
在龙卷风袭击格林菲尔德小镇大约24小时后，爱荷华州阿代尔县的官员宣布了这一消息。
官员们说，在恶劣天气事件中遇难者的姓名和年龄目前还没有公布。
在过去的24小时里，据报道，爱荷华州、内布拉斯加州、密苏里州、俄克拉荷马州、威斯康星州和明尼苏达州出现了龙卷风，其中大部分报道来自爱荷华州。
根据国家气象局的数据，据报道，周二恶劣天气引发的26场龙卷风中，至少有21场在下午5点44分至晚上11点之间袭击了爱荷华州。
“真是令人心痛。太可怕了。爱荷华州州长金·雷诺兹(Kim Reynolds)周三上午在格林菲尔德的新闻发布会上说，“在你真正看到它之前，很难描述它的破坏。
她说，格林菲尔德镇的大部分地区在周二的恶劣天气事件中被夷为平地。
袭击格林菲尔德的龙卷风被国家气象局初步确认为增强型藤田级EF-3，最大风速达到135英里/小时。
一名官员周二晚上说，为格林菲尔德服务的阿代尔县纪念医院遭受了龙卷风的破坏，但工作人员仍设法治疗病人，并将一些人转移到附近的医院接受进一步治疗。
周三，医院发布了一份声明，称龙卷风造成的破坏要求员工和病人撤离医院。
根据声明，医院将关闭数周，如果不是数月，以评估损失和修复建筑。
据医院官员称，在风暴中，工作人员和病人都没有受伤。
代表格林菲尔德的州众议员雷·索伦森(Ray Sorensen)说，周二下午3点左右龙卷风来袭时，他正在一座教堂画画，冲进镇里发现许多房屋受损或完全被毁，格林菲尔德几乎所有的古树都被连根拔起，被剥去了树枝。
“现在这是一个完全不同的城镇，”索伦森说。
但他说，当他到达受灾现场时，人们已经在清理街道上的废墟，为急救车辆让路，并帮助受伤者在一个木材场的临时分流中心接受治疗。
索伦森说:“每个人都成了临时搭建的小救护车。”“我们从废墟中拖出一个人，把他放在我们制作的临时担架上，把他扔进一个甚至不是来自爱荷华州的人的卡车里，然后我们就去了木材场，那是一家临时医院。”
据报道，周二从德克萨斯州到密歇根州，甚至在新英格兰地区，美国中部地区至少有329场严重风暴。
更恶劣的天气即将到来。龙卷风、破坏性大风和大冰雹的最高威胁将出现在德克萨斯州、俄克拉荷马州、阿肯色州和路易斯安那州，包括达拉斯、韦科、阿比林、小石城和什里夫波特等主要城市。
孟菲斯、纳什维尔、路易斯维尔、辛辛那提、匹兹堡、布法罗和罗切斯特也可能出现破坏性大风。
随着阵亡将士纪念日周末的到来，恶劣天气预计也将持续到周四。预计周四美国中部大部分地区以及从南达科他州到德克萨斯州和田纳西州东部的南部部分地区将出现危险天气。
位于奥斯汀和韦科之间的德克萨斯州坦普尔市周三晚上发布了紧急声明。官员们说，该地区的威尔逊娱乐中心被变成了一个临时避难所脸谱网.
周二，国家气象局发布了龙卷风内布拉斯加州、爱荷华州、南达科他州、密苏里州、阿肯色州、威斯康星州、伊利诺伊州、明尼苏达州、堪萨斯州和俄克拉荷马州部分地区的手表。
根据国家气象局的说法，几乎整个爱荷华州都处于“特别危险的情况下”。在格林菲尔德镇遭到漏斗云袭击之前，国家气象局发布了几次龙卷风警告。
雷诺兹州长授权宣布全州15个县进入灾难紧急状态。周三，她说该州将要求总统乔·拜登批准联邦救灾。
这些县包括王茂林、亚当斯、卡斯、克莱、哈丁、哈里森、贾斯珀、科苏斯、马歇尔、蒙哥马利、佩奇、帕洛阿尔托、波塔瓦米、塔玛和沃伦。
获得的几个视频ABC附属电视台WOI-DT2007年，得梅因在格林菲尔德拍摄到一大片地面漏斗云。
周二，WOI记者达纳·瑟尔斯在调查得梅因的损失时说:“这个小社区有很大一部分被摧毁，但大约一半仍然完好无损。从我所看到的情况来看，我估计现在可能有75%接近地面。”
在科罗拉多州东北部的尤马，从高尔夫球到垒球大小的冰雹袭击了该地区，造成汽车和建筑物损坏。尤马志愿消防员JJ·昂格尔周二告诉美国广播公司新闻，冰雹一度如此之深，导致多辆汽车陷入困境。
昂格尔说:“因为冰雹，就像暴风雪袭击了半个小时。”“这是我见过的下冰雹时间最长的一次。“
昂格尔说，周一晚上闪电来袭时，他和他的消防队员正在寻找可能的龙卷风。
“非常激烈，”昂格尔说，并补充说，由于能见度几乎为零，他和他的船员不得不靠边停车寻求庇护。
昂格尔说，当冰雹终于停止时，一英尺厚的冰雹覆盖了他的消防车和该地区的道路。
他说他的皮卡车和妻子的车的挡风玻璃都被震碎了。
昂格尔说:“镇上几乎每户人家的窗户都被打破了，我听说有一千多辆汽车被损坏。”
据当地应急管理官员称，在内布拉斯加州西南角的邓迪县出现了直径两英寸的冰雹。据报道风速超过每小时90英里。
周二，内布拉斯加州奥马哈市的降雨量超过半英尺，在该地区引发了严重的山洪暴发。
4 dead, 35 injured in Greenfield, Iowa, as dozens of tornadoes impact 6 states
Four people were killed and at least 35 were injured after a powerful tornado devastated Greenfield, Iowa, state police announced Wednesday.
Officials in Iowa's Adair County made the announcement about 24 hours after the twister hit the small town of Greenfield.
The names and ages of those killed in the severe weather event are not being released at this time, officials said.
Over the past 24 hours, tornadoes have been reported in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Minnesota -- with a majority of the reports stemming from Iowa.
According to the National Weather Service, at least 21 of the 26 reported tornadoes spawned by severe weather on Tuesday struck Iowa between 5:44 p.m. and 11 p.m. CT.
"It's just gut-wrenching. It's horrific. It's hard to describe until you can actually see it, the devastation," Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said at a news conference in Greenfield Wednesday morning.
She said that much of the town of Greenfield was flattened in Tuesday's severe weather event.
The tornado that struck Greenfield was preliminarily confirmed by the National Weather Service as an EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, with maximum wind speeds reaching 135 mph.
The Adair County Memorial Hospital, which serves Greenfield, sustained tornado damage, one official said Tuesday night, but workers still managed to treat patients and transport some to nearby hospitals for further care.
On Wednesday, the hospital released a statement saying the damage from the tornado required staff and patients to be evacuated from the facility.
The hospital will remain closed for weeks, if not months, to assess the damage and repair the building, according to the statement.
Neither staff nor patients were injured during the storm, according to hospital officials.
State Rep. Ray Sorensen, who represents Greenfield, said he was painting at a church when the tornado struck around 3 p.m. Tuesday and rushed into town to find numerous homes damaged or completely demolished and nearly all of the historic trees in Greenfield uprooted and stripped of limbs.
"It's a completely different town now," Sorensen said.
But he said that when he arrived at the scene of the devastation, people were already clearing the streets of debris to make way for emergency vehicles and helping those injured get medical attention at a makeshift triage center at a lumber yard.
"Everybody became little makeshift ambulances," Sorensen said. "We pulled a guy from the rubble and put him on a little makeshift stretcher that we made, threw him in the back of a truck of a guy that isn’t even from Iowa and we just made our way to the lumber yard, which was the makeshift hospital."
At least 329 severe storms were reported Tuesday through the nation's midsection from Texas to Michigan, even up in New England.
More severe weather is on the way. The highest threat for tornadoes, damaging winds and large hail will be in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, including major cities such as Dallas, Waco, Abilene, Little Rock and Shreveport.
Some damaging winds could also develop in Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Rochester.
Severe weather is also expected to stretch into Thursday as the Memorial Day weekend gets underway. Dangerous weather is expected on Thursday through large parts of the Heartland and parts of the South from South Dakota to Texas and east to Tennessee.
Temple City, Texas, which is located between Austin and Waco, issued an emergency declaration on Wednesday night. The Wilson Recreation Center in the area was turned into a makeshift shelter, officials said onFacebook.
On Tuesday, the National Weather Service issuedtornadowatches for parts of Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Nearly the entire state of Iowa was under a "Particularly Dangerous Situation," according to the National Weather Service, which issued several tornado warnings before the town of Greenfield was slammed by a funnel cloud.
Gov. Reynolds authorized a proclamation of disaster emergency for 15 counties across the state. On Wednesday, she said the state will ask President Joe Biden to approve federal disaster relief.
The counties include Adair, Adams, Cass, Clay, Hardin, Harrison, Jasper, Kossuth, Marshall, Montgomery, Page, Palo Alto, Pottawattamie, Tama and Warren.
Several videos obtained byABC affiliate station WOI-DTin Des Moines captured a large funnel cloud on the ground in Greenfield.
On Tuesday, WOI reporter Dana Searles, surveying the damage in Des Moines, said, "This small community has a big chunk destroyed, but about half of it is still intact. From what I've seen, I'd estimate that maybe 75% of it is near to the ground right now."
In Yuma, in northeast Colorado, hail ranging from golf ball to softball size pummeled the area, causing damage to cars and buildings. At one point, the hail was so deep it caused multiple vehicles to get stuck, JJ Unger, a volunteer Yuma firefighter, told ABC News Tuesday.
"It was like a blizzard hitting for a half hour because of the hail," Unger said. "That's the longest I've seen it hail like that."
Unger said he and his fire crew were out spotting for possible tornadoes Monday evening when lightning struck.
"It was very intense," said Unger, adding that he and his crew had to pull over and seek shelter as visibility went to almost zero.
Unger said that when the hail finally let up, a foot of hail was covering his fire engine and roads in the area.
He said the windshields of his pickup truck and his wife's vehicle were shattered.
"Almost every home in town has broken windows and I've heard that over a thousand cars were damaged," Unger said.
In Nebraska, hail measuring two inches in diameter fell in Dundy County in the southwest corner of the state, according to local emergency management officials. Winds of over 90 mph were also reported.
More than half a foot of rain was recorded in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday, producing major flash flooding in the area.
