DERECHO CREATES 'IOWA'S KATRINA'

The August 10 derecho had winds over 100 mph. in places.

It’s not enough that we are dealing with a plague that has killed more than 170,000 Americans so far this year, an extreme heatwave and wildfires in California and a burgeoning hurricane season. But the folks in the breadbasket of America, particularly in the state of Iowa, were struck recently with a massive straight-line storm with winds well over 100 miles per hour called a derecho. The storm blasted through parts of five states on August 10, leaving more than 600,000 people without power for days.

The storm flattened 37 million acres of ripening corn and soybeans in the fields, destroying up to one-third of the nation’s corn crop, and devastated homes and businesses in its path. More than 1000 homes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa alone were declared uninhabitable in the storm’s aftermath, blowing off the very roofs over residents’ heads while they tried to shelter from the pandemic. Coronavirus cases reached a new daily high of 832 in Iowa on August 15, in a state where Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has been reluctant to impose restrictions to curb the spread of the disease.

“This is a crisis within a crisis,” said Stacey Walker, a Democrat who serves on the Board of Supervisors for Linn County, which includes Cedar Rapids, referring to the storm on top of the pandemic. “This is Iowa’s Katrina. Literally Iowa was hit with a hurricane-style meteorological event. It seems crazy to say that, but it’s true.”

Government response to the disaster has been complicated—read slowed to a crawl—by several factors. First, a derecho combines the worst characteristics of both a hurricane and a tornado. That is, it can cover the wide swath of territory that a hurricane can, with the high, sustained winds that make hurricanes such a destructive force. As its name implies, a derecho moves in a straight line across that wide swath, the hurricane-force winds pushing out in front of the storm.

But unlike a hurricane, which is slow-moving and therefore predictable with modern technology, a derecho rises as quickly as a tornado and provides little or no warning to the people in its path. And given that its path is so wide, there would be nowhere to go to avoid it except an underground reinforced shelter. 

A derecho much bigger than this one hit parts of five states on August 10.

There was no option for a pre-disaster request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for aid, as there might have been with a hurricane. And with cell towers and electrical transmission stations down after the storm, an accurate assessment of the damage was difficult. Still, it was nearly a week before any state request for assistance was made to FEMA and the ball got rolling to help people in need.

The coronavirus pandemic complicates any response, too, in multiple ways. Those in need will be reluctant to go to temporary shelters or food and water distribution points. There will be fewer volunteers, FEMA staff, insurance adjusters and health workers available to help. And people are struggling. 

Genevieve Adams, 48, a single mom with a teenage son, has been surviving on a cup of coffee and one meal a day since the storm destroyed her home. “A week later and we don’t even have food,” Adams said through tears. “It’s a struggle to make it on our own. They could at least have a truck or something out delivering meals.” 

Calvin Ross, 42, a construction day laborer, agreed. He lived in Cedar Rapids during the 2008 flood and remembers aid coming a lot faster. “Someone has to help,” Ross said. “Surely someone.”

In one sign of hope, Governor Reynolds formally requested an expedited Presidential Major Disaster Declaration for Iowa on August 16, including funding for 27 counties for assistance with housing, personal property replacement, medical expenses and legal services, and additional money for debris removal and replacement of public infrastructure in 16 counties.

But former FEMA administrator William “Brock” Long, now executive chairman of Hagerty Consulting, warns, “Expedited major disaster declarations are few and far between.”  Help for the victims of “Iowa’s Katrina” may be a while in coming.

And in the meantime, the wildfires burn in California and yet another hurricane season is brewing in the Atlantic. It’s enough to make you want to take ship for another planet.

With trepidation,

Donna

*Information provided for this post by “‘Iowa’s Katrina’: Help is slow to come for storm-battered state, local officials and residents say,” by Annie Gowen and Frances Stead Sellers, The Washington Post, August 17, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/iowas-katrina-help-is-slow-to-come-for-storm-battered-state/2020/08/17/4eac3574-e002-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html