On April 13, 20 years ago, three supercells, a type of thunderstorm with a persistent rotating updraft and a key factor in the creation of a tornado, formed across eastern Iowa and created 15 tornadoes. One of those tornadoes touched down in Iowa City on April 13, 2006.
According to Our Iowa Heritage, an online blog that preserves Iowa history, the damage left by the tornado cost Iowa City an estimated $15 million.
According to reporting from The Daily Iowan in 2006, the tornado affected 4.5 miles of Iowa City, caused $5.9 million in damages to the university and an estimated $3 million in minimal damages to public property. It destroyed a total of 26 homes and left 260 homes with either major or minor damages. One of those homes was the Alpha Chi Omega sorority house.
There were also a total of 32 businesses with either major or minor damages, one of those was the Dairy Queen on South Riverside Drive.
Also affected was St. Patrick’s Church, whose roof collapsed during the tornado. The church complex reopened three years later in November 2009…