Iowans grapple with aftermath of Monday's deadly derecho, 'a disaster that we have never seen'

We will continue to experience "never before seen" feroious weather as the climate warms, which adds energy to weather systems.

https://news.yahoo.com/iowans-grapple-aftermath-mondays-deadly-165919799.html

 

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
,USA TODAY•August 14, 2020 

Iowans continue to deal with the aftermath of the ferocious derecho storm that roared across the Midwest on Monday.

The storm, with straight-line winds that reached nearly 100 mph in parts of Iowa, swept across Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan before losing steam.

There have been three confirmed deaths related to the storm in Iowa. One other person was killed in Indiana.

As of midday Friday, some 140,000 customers remained without power in Iowa, according to poweroutage.us. Another 60,000 were without power in Illinois.

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The straight-line winds that toppled trees and power lines across much of Iowa was “unlike anything our company has ever seen,” Alliant Energy spokesman Mike Wagner said. Hundreds of workers were assessing damage and clearing trees that have blocked roads and power lines, he said.

A spokesman for ITC Midwest – which maintains much of the transmission infrastructure for Alliant and other utilities – said Monday’s derecho caused the worst damage to transmission lines in the company’s history, the Cedar Rapids Gazette said. 

Cedar Rapids city manager Jeff Pomeranz said the storm touched every square mile of the city of 133,000 people, destroyed thousands of trees, damaged homes and businesses and prompted a record number of calls for emergency assistance. He said hospitals were also overwhelmed with emergency room visits by those injured or in need of other medical treatment.

“This is a disaster that we have never seen before. It is something that was essentially like a hurricane coming through the Midwest” without advance notice, said U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer, a Democrat who represents Cedar Rapids in Congress.

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Across Iowa, the storm also hit about 10 million acres of crops, Gov. Reynolds said earlier this week. The Iowa Department of Agriculture said the storm affected roughly a third of the state, which grows about 32 million acres of corn, soybeans and other crops.

During a news conference Tuesday, Reynolds said farmers have told her the damage "has just been devastating ... they have never seen anything like this."

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tags: severe weather, extreme weather