Evan Headley was coming home from work to his apartment in Des Moines when high winds and a thunderstorm started to sweep across the Des Moines metro.
At first, Headley didn’t think anything of it. He was used to storms in Iowa, especially this year. But by the time Headley finished showering, he received a text from his mom warning him of the severe weather nearby.
“At that same time I saw a trash can go flying across my parking lot probably 10 feet up in the air,” Headley said. “I thought that was kind of funny, so I pulled my phone to take a video of it not realizing how serious the storm actually was.”
The shingles to the roof of his apartment, on the corner of 63rd and Hickman, started to fly off.
“The roof of my apartment is pretty much gone, so I think it is safe to say they were from my apartment,” Headley said.
‘I was really surprised at how fast’ tornado developed in Des Moines
Headley’s apartment was right in the middle of the path of an EF 1 tornado that hit the Des Moines metro on Monday night. It was one of at least two tornadoes in the state, and some of the earliest destruction from a derecho that stretched across the Midwest.
His car also sustained damage from the storm, Headley said. There are scratches and dents as well as a crack in his windshield. Fallen trees have littered the neighborhood. People have already started damage cleanup in Headley’s neighborhood.
“It looks like a tornado went through there,” Headley said. “I was really surprised at how fast it all happened. It was just hot and it didn’t look like bad weather necessarily. But then 10 minutes later my roof is being blown off the apartment complex.”
Kate Kealey is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at kkealey@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter at @Kkealey17.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines tornado tore the roof off an apartment. See the viral video