WATERLOO - A severe storm through the area has knocked out power to nearly 3,500 in Hardin and Grundy counties.

According to Alliant Energy, at about 5 p.m., there are 452 without power in Grundy County and 2,117 without power in Hardin County.

Courier staff in Grundy Center reported a substantial number of downed trees. Campers at Pine Lake State Park in Eldora reported substantial hail damage to campers and mobile homes from golf ball sized hail, with crop damage along Iowa Highway 175 between Eldora and Grundy Center.

At one time, Alliant also said about 1,260 were without power in Linn County. At 5 p.m., the company was reporting only 1 customer did not have power.

MidAmerican Energy is reporting about 272 customers with power outages in Black Hawk County at 5 p.m., after weather warning sirens sounded before noon due to the reports of strong wind and hail in Grundy County.

The storm has mainly passed through Black Hawk County now, but it dumped a substantial amount of rain.

More could be coming. The storms' coverage area will expand through this afternoon and evening. Some storms will be severe with large hail of golf ball size or larger. A second wave of heavy rain passed though Grundy and Black Hawk counties at mid-afternoon, with heavy rain also repored in north-central Iowa.

Strong, damaging winds and heavy rain is expected.

An isolated tornado is possible.

Dime-sized hail was reported in Manchester, according to the National Weather Service.

The CodeRED high speed telephone emergency notification service is now avaiable for Black Hawk County residents. It gives officials the ability to deliver emergency telephone notification/information messages to targeted areas at a rate of up to 60,000 calls per hour.

The Web-based enrollment in the CodeRED emergency notification system is free.

All individuals and businesses are encouraged to log onto the Black Hawk County Web site (www.co.black-hawk.ia.us) and follow the link to the "CodeRED Residential and Business Data Collection" page. Required information includes first and last name, street address (physical street, not P.O. boxes), city, state, ZIP code, primary phone number and additional phone numbers (optional).

Also included is the CodeRED Weather Warning service, which automatically places calls when National Weather Service issues a tornado, flood and severe weather warning.

At 5 p.m., Alliant Energy also reported these numbers for customers without power:

• 284 Fayette
• 80 Buchanan
• 45 Marshall
• 19 Tama