Very strong winds blew through Iowa Wednesday night (12/15).  How strong?  An 82 mph wind gust was reported in Ottumwa just before 8pm.  MidAmerican Energy says hundreds of customers are without power Thursday morning….with Des Moines, Monroe and Knoxville hardest hit.  There are also outages in these counties: Mahaska, Jasper, Marion, Monroe and Poweshiek.

Wapello County Emergency Management Director Tim Richmond tells the No Coast Network you might be smelling smoke, or may have Wednesday night.  He says that is not from a fire in the county.  Instead, the smoke is from a wildfire in Kansas and the smoke was pulled into Wapello County by Wednesday’s strong winds.

The No Coast Network is reaching out to emergency management personnel in the region for reports of storm damage.

We have a couple of notes about area schools: Davis County schools will start two hours late Thursday (12/16) and classes at Moulton-Udell will start at 10:30 Thursday morning.