Damaging Storms Move East, Fires Rage out West

A line of severe storms is moving east Tuesday after causing extensive damage across the Midwest.

"We've had some pretty bad storms, but I've never seen any damage like this in our immediate area," Iowa farmer Gerry Kennicker said. "The road up to our farm up here a couple miles, that was just tree after tree after tree. It was closed."

This type of gale-force winds in a thunderstorm is called a derecho, a straight line of powerful winds that can cause as much destruction as a tornado.

In Sheldon, Iowa, winds gusting up to 95 mph leveled an airplane hangar and smashed planes.

"When we first came out here, you know you don't see this. When you first come around the corner and you think, 'Oh, this looks pretty good,' but you get around the corner and you see everything's not okay. We've got a big mess here," Nicholas Vust with the Sheldon Regional Airport, said.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in Portland, Michigan, severely damaging several businesses and a church. Authorities reported at least five people had to be rescued from damaged and collapsed buildings.

Miraculously, no one was hurt.

Out West, wildfires growing in size and number are the big issue. At least 21 fires were burning in six states as firefighters struggle to gain the upper hand.

"The trees are really weak and ready to come down -- even if they look stable, they are ready to come down," Firefighter Lauren Bushey, battling fires in California, said.

Alaska is seeing the worst of it.

More than 3,000 firefighters are battling 13 large fires there. So far, more than 350 square miles -- an area about the size of Fort Worth, Texas -- have been burned.

With this just the start of the fire season out West, authorities say they're expecting a difficult year in large part because the area is suffering from an historic drought.