The sudden, powerful storm Thursday afternoon destroyed buildings, snapped trees and damaged crops near Zearing.

The sudden, powerful storm Thursday afternoon destroyed buildings, snapped trees and damaged crops near Zearing.

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The sudden, powerful storm Thursday afternoon destroyed buildings, snapped trees and damaged crops near Zearing.

A sudden and intense storm Thursday afternoon caused widespread damage south of Zearing, with some homeowners suffering worse damage than they did during the 2020 derecho.

Powerful wind gusts flattened buildings, took off portions of roofs and snapped trees along Highway 65.

"Out of nowhere, storm comes in, and we start getting phone calls, 'Hey, your cattle shed's blown over, cows are on the highway, you need to get up here and take care of it,'" said Corbin Jones, who works for Upchurch Feeders.

The force of the wind blew large sections of the cattle shed across the highway and into a corn field. The building housed 17 cows and five donkeys.

"We'd just got that replaced," Jones said. "It got blown down in the derecho a couple years ago, so it's about a year old. And now it's in the field and in the ditch."

Just up the highway, Jeremy Earles is assessing the damage to his property.

He bought the acreage with heavy damage from the derecho. He said he finished the last bit of clean-up two weeks ago.

"We bought it, cleaned it up," Earles said. "We cut down 33 trees and over 40 bushes to get it to where it was, and then yesterday just kind of came through and re-did it all over again."

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