Thunderstorm winds or possibly a tornado caused a Union Pacific Train to derail early this (Thursday) morning, in Crawford County. Emergency Management Coordinator Greg Miller told KJAN News some of the train’s container cars derailed between 2-and 2:25-a.m., about a mile and a half west of Westside. None of the cars were toppled over, though. The train was carrying some hazardous material, but as of the latest report, nothing was leaking, and no injuries were reported.

Miller said the train’s engineers swore a tornado caused the damage, as several of the containers inside the rail cars were sucked out of those cars. He said winds gusted up to 75-miles per hour for a short time. All the crossings are open in area towns, but power lines were down in several communities. Charter Oak, Dow City and Denison all reported scattered power outages. Winds just southwest of Denison at the airport, peaked at 87-mph at around 2:15-a.m.  A few minutes earlier, winds were gusting to near 60-mph in the same area.

The National Weather Service says Arcadia, in Carroll County, was hit with near 60-mph winds and quarter-sized hail at around 2:30-a.m. Miller said the town was hit pretty hard.  Elsewhere, a resident of Audubon County who lives about 7-to 8-miles east of Exira off 280^th Street, reports a solid wood corn crib that’s stood the test of time for over 50-years, was blown over sometime between 2:25-and 2:45-a.m. today.  And, a little southwest of Minden, in Dallas County, half-dollar size hail was reported at around 2:35-a.m.