Iowa Derecho Likely Worst Weather Disaster This Year

The derecho that swept through the Midwest, especially Iowa, seems like it will easily go down as the worst and most costly weather disaster in the United States this year.  

You can see the lighter color inside the yellow
lines in this visible satellite photo of Iowa. That
lighter color is corn leveled by this week's
destructive derecho.

But then, this is 2020. Things always get worse.  I"m afraid a hurricane or wildfire or something later this year will be even worse.

The derecho was bad enough, though. An estimated 10 million acres of crop fields, mostly corn, was destroyed or badly damage. That 10 million acres represents about a third of Iowa's crop land. ' The damage to corn is so severe you can see it in visible satellite images. 

Farms suffered severe structural damage too, with destroyed grain bins, unroofed barns and storage facilities and even wrecked homes. Overall, some estimates put the storm damage at around $3.4 billion.

The aftermath of the storm, as is often the case, was in some ways more dangerous than the storm itself.   The Gazette of Cedar Rapids reports that the hospital in that city has seen nearly 250 emergency room visits related to the storm. Most of the visits are due to injuries suffered in the cleanup.  The stress of the disaster has also brought people with underlying medical conditions to the hospital for ailments like chest pains or lung problems. 

Hundreds of thousands of people remained without power in Iowa and surrounding states Thursday morning. You can imagine the spoiled food, the lack of communication due to failed cell towers and dead batteries, and worse, medical devices that aren't working without power.  People who have been local utilities for decades say this is the worst damage they've ever seen.

This storm is probably getting less media attention than a similar storm would have near the coasts, where most major media companies are located. 

Without a deep dive, I think most Americans probably assume that the Iowa storm was much like a severe thunderstorm commonly seen in the summer, like the Tuesday storm that felled numerous trees here in Vermont, in and around Burlington.

The Iowa derecho, though, was much worse, as the damage swaths covered hundreds of miles, essentially swallowing Iowa and large chunks of Illinois and Indiana. This will probably have effects nationwide in the form of increased food prices and such. 

Things are already bad enough with the pandemic.  We did not need this Iowa disaster. 

More videos:

A family is caught out on the road as the derecho hits, and they know they are in danger. Spoiler: They drive to a Bomgaars store to take shelter and ended up safe.  Watch:

Lots of F bombs and other swear words for understandable reasons in this video from Newton, Iowa

A Weather Channel Report on farm losses.  Pretty extreme and heartbreaking: