Lost about half a tree, not by the house, and picked up 75 pounds of half-ripe pears, but we’re far enough out that we had power back on before the “gusts up to 100” winds were completely gone in the Des Moines city area.
Listening to WHO 1040, that is the pattern right now– the system is set up so that emergency fix-it guys do the stuff next to them, and then move on to the next nearest area that needs work. This functions like swarming in insects…when there’s a tornado or something. This hit most of the state, so it’s taking a lot longer for the outlying area’s quick response teams to work in to the city and fix the more generalized damage.
The kids and I were actually outside when the wind hit– doing a science lesson, AKA, “guys! Get out here, check out the light” and then I point to the clouds, how they were whipping east but we had only the faintest of breeze, the kids ran down to the yard to mess around, came back up— WHUMP!!!!!
The wind slammed all of us like a door to the face. The tent went flying 30 feet with all 150 or so pounds of books, blankets, pillows, lamps and random socks, into the side of our shop/garage. The “tent” of three old area rugs (20-35 sq ft) on a table went flying. Kids helped me yank the poles out of the side and get it into the camper just as the rain started pouring down.
About two hours later it was clear again, Elf and I got the tent back up to make sure it COULD be done. It had been held down with a dozen metal spikes driven into the ground, two of them we bent when we were pinning it down…. they were thrown between five and fifteen feet, and one of the bent ones was mostly straightened by the force. I’d tied the “ceiling” level of the tent to a couple of trees, with the very well connected cloth loops made for that. Thank goodness they weren’t grommets, or the top would be shredded, rather than having an easier to fix failure point.
Lost one chicken wire fence near the old pear tree, no other damage.
And, like I said, had power back before the storm had cleared the city.
Husband’s co-workers had things like wooden swing sets flipped over, local radio was mentioning that those huge, heavy, glass-topped umbrella tables went flying off of some of the patios on apartment buildings, so entire streets are COVERED with glass shards. (Came up because when the wind stopped, folks headed out to start sweeping so responders could get there.)
Head Noises 
Glad you rode it out safely.
That must have been some science lesson!
They are definitely going to remember atmospheric layers are A Thing!
Thank goodness! This year, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear someone was blown to Oz….
True Fax(tm)
good to hear you’re ok. We had something similar whip through ND/MN back in 1999 during July 4th.
Oh, gads, that’s HORRIBLE timing– I can just picture all the tents and such.
Wow. Glad you’re okay. Our biggies are volcano, ice storm, and catastrophic damn failure (that last turned out to be a false alarm). We lose trees every spring and winter, but never winds like you described. Sounds kind of cool, actually.
It was!
Enough damage for a disaster declaration in like one fifth of counties, but that just means insurance kicks in– actually LOOKING, I didn’t see much damage, and the local news’ shot of smashed down corn was extremely tight-cut, so they probably couldn’t, either.