Derecho in Iowa

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pioneer98
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Derecho in Iowa

Post by pioneer98 »

A storm called a "derecho" hit Iowa on Monday afternoon. This thing was almost like an inland hurricane. It had 110 mph winds. There were about 120,000 people without power in my area, and after 4 days of working on it, there are still around 70,000 people without power. (We were without power from Monday afternoon to Thursday afternoon). We just have tons of tree branches down, and even some uprooted trees. Some roofs were simply blown off. The Cedar Rapids area was hit even harder. It really does look like the aftermath of a hurricane there from the pictures I've seen. Their entire area was without power for a while (compared to about 50% here). Here is a gif of the radar of the storm.

Image

An article with a better gif that was too many MB to share here:
https://www.weather.gov/dvn/summary_081020

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Smith Corks One
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Re: Derecho in Iowa

Post by Smith Corks One »

I’m guessing it was the same one that blew down all of Dreamer’s corn.

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IMADreamer
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Re: Derecho in Iowa

Post by IMADreamer »

Smith Corks One wrote:
August 15 20, 11:05 am
I’m guessing it was the same one that blew down all of Dreamer’s corn.
It was, but man Iowa had it way worse. A buddy of mine lost all his corn and beans, grain bins, and a couple machine sheds. He told me he felt lucky compared to some of his neighbors. It's a bad situation.

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pioneer98
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Re: Derecho in Iowa

Post by pioneer98 »

I got my internet back just now. But there are still like 12,000 people here that don't have power. There are still 53,000 people without power in the Cedar Rapids area. It's so odd how this disaster is barely getting talked about much. We're supposed to act like nothing happened and just show up to our jobs every day, then return to a home without power and tree branches all over the place. That's how it was Mon-Thurs for me. My company made me use sick leave for missing work Tuesday...a day when the FACTORY DID NOT EVEN OPEN BECAUSE IT HAD NO POWER.

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pioneer98
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Re: Derecho in Iowa

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It’s Even Worse Than You Think In Cedar Rapids
Everyone in town warned those who hadn’t seen it yet that the level of destruction in Cedar Rapids was “unimaginable.” That was somehow understating it.

Volunteers and relief groups poured into Iowa’s second-largest city this weekend to assist with cleanup and humanitarian help after Monday’s derecho storm devastated a giant swath of the Iowa landscape. Those who drove out from Des Moines witnessed a four-county stretch of utter destruction, filled with flattened corn fields and mangled farm structures. No mile of the countryside was not impacted.

Then they arrived in Cedar Rapids.

There are simply no words, photos or videos sufficient to describe the full extent of the carnage. A land hurricane. A bomb. An apocalypse. A 40-mile wide tornado. An artillery barrage. Not even those descriptions suffice as we simply haven’t seen something like this before, we have no frame of reference. Local reporters have covered it extensively under impossible conditions, but unless you see it in person, it’s impossible to fully visualize — our story here won’t be enough, but hopefully it helps.

Usually when you see a destroyed house or an overturned car on the news from most disasters, you think, well, they must be showing us the worst of the worst.

Everything here is catastrophic. That photo you saw of a massive tree so uprooted it took a chunk of someone’s yard and the street with it? There’s one of those literally every three blocks, if not more.

Every power line is tangled, every tree blasted, every house damaged, every street covered in branches or downed trees or smashed cars trapped under them. In many areas, a thin dusting of what looks like clumpy white snow is affixed to the side of nearly every building. Look closer and you’ll see it’s insulation from blown-up roofs spread over miles and miles of the city.
Two pictures from the article:
[SHOW]
Image
Image

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Re: Derecho in Iowa

Post by Leroy »

Too bad this hasn't been important enough for national news.

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Re: Derecho in Iowa

Post by Popeye_Card »

Location. Had this happened on a coast, it would probably be a bigger national story. One of these hit Ohio pretty hard several years ago (my power was out for 2 weeks, and I spent weeks cleaning up downed trees in my yard), and my recollection is that it barely registered on a national scale.

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Re: Derecho in Iowa

Post by Leroy »

I'm not so sure of that. I mean, there was a lot of coverage of the death get together (bike rally) in Sturgis, SD. I mean, CNN took at least five minutes to interview the mayor of San Antonio, Texas on his thoughts of the danger of the rally.

I suppose since things are all okie dokie in Texas, he has the time.

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Re: Derecho in Iowa

Post by CardsofSTL »

Popeye_Card wrote:
August 17 20, 9:50 am
Location. Had this happened on a coast, it would probably be a bigger national story. One of these hit Ohio pretty hard several years ago (my power was out for 2 weeks, and I spent weeks cleaning up downed trees in my yard), and my recollection is that it barely registered on a national scale.
Wasn't that after Hurricane Ike? I had the same experience and I was living in an uppity suburb where power outages aren't supposed to happen.

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Re: Derecho in Iowa

Post by mikechamp »

The national media only pays attention to Iowa in odd numbered years leading up to a presidential election.

Ohhhhhh... shots fired!!


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