It's been a few weeks ... but I have a good excuse. My part of the world was devastated by an unprecedented storm on August 10, a storm that knocked out power to literally every customer in Linn County and caused widespread damage to homes and businesses. And I was part of that.
The storm is called a derecho. Its destructive power is similar to a tornado, but instead of localized swirling winds, derechos sweep incredibly strong straight-line winds over a wide area. This storm on August 10 developed in South Dakota as a line of strong thunderstorms, which is nothing out of the ordinary for the Midwest in August. As it moved west into Iowa, it began gaining strength - it caused damage in parts of Des Moines and areas to the northwest, but it really started picking up power after that. By the time it moved into Marshall County, winds were being clocked at over 100 miles per hour, and these winds continued unabated for close to a half hour. The storm caused about a 40-mile wide path of destruction, from near Marshalltown right down Highway 30 through Cedar Rapids, even causing damage in the Clinton/Quad Cities area as it weakened a bit.
When it reached Cedar Rapids, later estimates by the National Weather Service said the peak winds reached 140 miles per hour, ripping roofs off buildings and toppling about half of all the trees in the city. Power lines went down, streets were blocked by trees and debris, it was a mess. TV and radio stations in the city went off the air, with no power or with transmission towers being knocked down. Phone lines were dead. At the least, cell service was still available immediately after the storm, but by Monday night that all went dead, too. No electricity, no communication, difficult travel - it was an unmitigated disaster.
As for me, I happened to be in my car when the storm caught up to me, along Highway 30 near Belle Plaine. I knew a bad storm was coming - we get bad storms in Iowa in the summer - but I had no idea how bad this was going to be. As the initial wind gusts and rain cut the visibility down to zero, I pulled onto the shoulder of the highway to wait it out. The hurricane-force winds picked up the rocks from the highway shoulder and shattered my rear window. The wind and rain blasted into my car, along with the bits of shattered glass and more rocks, and I was sure at some times the wind was going to lift my car off the ground and turn me over into the ditch. Again, this went on for at least 20 to 30 minutes of howling, incessant wind.
Once the worst of the storm passed and I limped back to Cedar Rapids, it was incredible to see the devastation of the farmland. Corn was flattened in the fields as far as you could see. Trees were uprooted and broken off at every farm. About half the farmsteads had buildings damaged, blown apart or roofs torn off. And the city was no different.
My home suffered only minor damage, but my back yard was full of elm tree. And our beautiful shade tree in the front yard, the one that shaded us from the summer sun, even though it looked like it just lost a few branches upon closer examination you could see the split trunk, from which it would not recover. Damn.
We were without electricity for 10 entire days, without internet service for 11. We still don't have our cable TV, now 17 days later. So that explains why I really haven't had the time to put together another blog post. Meanwhile, almost no one outside this area even heard about the storm. The second-largest city in Iowa, a metro area of better than 150,000 people, brought to its knees by a historic storm causing multiple millions in damages and heartbreak and stress to tens of thousands of people - and it wasn't on the national news for days. Once it made the news, it was just for a few days before people moved on to something else - as Iowans struggled without electricity, struggled to try to clear debris, struggled to try to fix their homes. It was maddening.
Things are starting to get a little bit back on track now, as we near three weeks after the storm. Crews from the DOT cleared the debris from our curbs last weekend (just round one, though). Even though the first company I hired to clear my trees flaked on me a week ago, I hope to get those cleared out of here in the next few days (which means the curbs will be filled up with debris again). And eventually I'll feel like I have the time to move on with another West Wing post.
I just thought you might like to know.
No comments:
Post a Comment