A large tornado tore through northern Ringgold County with no advanced warning, residents say

Mitchell Gilliland was standing in the garage of his Tingley home Friday night, when he saw a tornado coming.

“I heard him scream, ‘Get in the basement!’” said his wife, Charity.

What followed were frantic, frightening seconds as the couple scrambled to get five children to safety.

“We were literally tossing the kids down the stairs,” Charity said.

Mitchell, bringing up the rear, was standing on the landing leading to the basement and next to the back door when the garage disappeared right before his eyes.

When they finally felt safe to exit the basement, the family could assess the damages. Windows on the south side of the house were broken and upstairs, where the bedrooms were located, was even worse — most of the roof was gone.

“It’s not fixable,” said Charity of the house on Saturday afternoon as the clean-up effort was in full swing all around her. “It’s a total loss.”

Two tornadoes swept through Ringgold County Friday, with a third traveling nearly 26 miles across the county near Mount Ayr. The Tingley tornado traveled an estimated 10 miles and was classified as an EF-2 by the National Weather Service, with peak wind speeds of 125 MPH.

Despite the widespread property damage from Friday’s storm, Ringgold County residents were fortunate there were no deaths or serious injuries.

The southwest city will likely be without electricity for two to three days, according to an Alliant Energy crew working to restore lines because the tornado badly damaged a substation. The Tingley Community Building was also destroyed in the storm.

More: Trees downed, homes damaged in Pleasant Hill after tornadoes sweep through area.

Tornado arrived with no warning

Tingley, a town of less than 200 residents in northern Ringgold County, was busy with clean-up efforts Saturday afternoon — all keeping an eye on the sky as another storm was predicted by later in the day.

They said they had no warning that Friday's tornado was coming.

“There were no sirens,” Charity Gilliland said.

Part of the problem was that electricity was out by the time the tornado hit, said Earl Briner, who was watching TV with his wife, Colleen before the storm arrived.

“If we could have had (WHO-TV13 meteorologist) Ed Wilson on we might have known it was coming,” Briner said.

More: 'Large and extremely dangerous' tornadoes sweep across Iowa. Minden hit hard.

Briner said he and his wife first realized the severity when four of their windows blew out, forcing the retired couple to scramble and put up plastic to keep the rain away.

By Saturday afternoon, the Briners were wandering a debris-strewn field north of their house, looking for the electric meter that had been blown off their damaged home.

“We really want to find it (the meter) because they (the Alliant Energy crew) told us it costs $1,500 to replace,” said Briner, adding that they did not have homeowners insurance because they use a wood-burning furnace that prevented them from getting a policy.

More: Tiny Minden, Iowa, riddled with debris after tornado smashes through town Friday

Severe storm devastates much of Ringgold County

The tornado that passed through the tiny Ringgold County town of Tigley was indiscriminate in wreaking devastation — some people were left homeless, while other homes appeared to be unscathed. One yard had a full-sized RV flipped on its side while another was stuck in a nearby tree.

The Mount Ayr tornado, which ran parallel to the one in Tingley, was classified as an EF-1 with a maximum wind speed of 110 MPH. The rotation lasted nearly 45 minutes, touching down around 7:30 p.m. with a width of 300 yards, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm left an estimated 40-50 homes uninhabitable in Ringgold County, according to Ringgold County Emergency Management Coordinator Melissa Stark.

Damage was also reported at some hog facilities and at an operation with 500 head of cattle. Stark did not know how many livestock were lost.

She said at least one Amish farm sustained home and outbuilding damage.

The tornado likely formed out of a second weather system that crashed through Ringgold County on Friday. The earlier storm tracked to the west, said Stark.

“We think this was a second cell separate from one that we had been tracking earlier starting in the southwest corner of the county," Stark said. "I think this one started in Worth County (MO) and there just wasn’t much warning. It was moving so quickly."

Power lines went down as the first storm passed through around 8 p.m. The second system arrived in Tingley less than 45 minutes later at 8:39 p.m.

Stark said Ringgold County is going to make a request to the state for disaster assistance.

Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: What we know about a tornado that hit Tingley in Ringgold County