Straight winds or tornado

A swath of destruction was left behind as a weather incident traveled northeast from Floyd County, with damage being done in all parts of Howard County. Add to that record-setting temperatures of 70 degrees for Dec. 15 and winds gusting over 70 miles per hour, and it was a disaster waiting to happen.

Many areas of the county experienced either blinking lights or outages.

Cresco and Decorah towns were out from around 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 15 until 3 p.m. on Thursday. It was a sad sight to see all the closed businesses all over Cresco, unless a business happened to have a generator. The local schools were also closed due to no power.

Many of the individuals who gathered at neighbors, friends and family's damaged properties said this storm was one of the very few times they actually went to their basement for safety. This storm came on the heels of tornadoes that hit eight states and killed around 90 individuals. The reality of a fatal storm was on everyone's mind.

At this point, the rest of the story will be told in picture form.