(Radio Iowa) – The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities has confirmed a tornado hit Davenport during last night’s storms. Meteorologist Brian Pierce says they don’t know the full extent of the damage or the exact time  the tornado touched down, but they do know with some confidence the size and scope of the tornado.

“We have a width of 100 yards and a maximum windspeed of about 100 miles an hour, so it was EF-0 to borderline EF-1,” Pierce. The tornado moved about 8 miles through the city, and ultimately crossed the Mississippi River. Pierce says pinpointing the time the twister touched down may take time due to the scope of last night’s storms. “We did have straight line winds with windspeeds of about 70 to 75 miles an hour coming through the Quad Cities area. Up around the Dubuque area, winds were pushing 100 miles an hour,” he says.

The Des Moines area weather office confirmed at least one tornado touched down Monday night in Urbandale and Windsor Heights.

MidAmerican says around 50,000 people were without power at the peak of the storms, including 31,000 in the Quad Cities. Mid-American Energy spokesman Geoff Greenwood says they’ve called in a lot of help. “This is an all hands on deck type of situation,” Greenwood says. “And in addition to our own crews, we’ve brought in additional tree crews from elsewhere, and even contract line crews, some crews from other utilities here in the Midwest. Those line and tree crews come from Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Missouri.

“They’re all focused on efforts in the Quad Cities, and we’ll have crews working throughout the night as we expect these efforts are going to have to continue through Wednesday,” he says.  Mid-American Energy anticipates power to be restored to most Quad Cities customers by Wednesday.

(By Grant Winterer,Iowa Public Radio)