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Cattle farmer rebuilding after tornadoes hit southwest Iowa

A southwest Iowa cattle farmer says his family is still picking up the pieces after a devastating storm system hit his area on June 11^th.

“Nobody was hurt,” said Tom Shipley of Nodaway. “We’ve got a place to stay and it’s just going to be a long time cleaning up.”

Shipley tells Brownfield his family took cover shortly after 6 a.m.

“There’s several places that got hit really hard,” he said. “A lot of people lost a bunch of grain storage.”

The National Weather Service in Omaha says at least eight tornadoes touched down during the storm, which swept through the southwest corner of the state. Shipley says his home was hit and he believes the house will be a total loss.

“I had a big pecan tree, which not many grows around Iowa, but I had one,” he said. “But I don’t anymore because it came right down into the kitchen.”

Shipley says his cattle herd was spared.

“My granddaughter, that was her biggest concern. ‘Are the cows okay, grandpa?’ ‘Yeah, the cows are fine, hun, the cows are fine.’ We’re just still kind of in shell shock I guess.”

The tornado that struck Shipley’s farm stayed on the ground for six miles and wind speeds with the tornado reached 115 miles an hour, according to the National Weather Service.

Tom Shipley talks to Brownfield: