1000 Mile Storm: 2020 Iowa Derecho

On August 10th, 2020, the Midwestern US was impacted by the costliest thunderstorm in United States history as a derecho left a nearly 1000 mile path of devastation. We take a look at how such an event can happen, the complex forecast, and its lasting impacts.

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#Derecho #Weather #Iowa #Thunderstorm #Tornado #Midwest #Wind #Lightning #STEM #Science #Education #documentary

[progenitor_amborella]

Up around the CR metro, we lost approx 70%+ of the total tree canopy, in a city known for its large, hundred year old trees.

The Iowa governor didn’t acknowledge the event until August 13th and national media mostly ignored the event since Iowa is flyover land, even though people were without power for several days. When the Guard was activated, one notable member who helped said this was the worst damage they’d seen since Hurricane Katrina (struggling to find the source right now, but I believe it was broadcast.)

This event was a big push for me to help people become more weather aware, as well as teaching myself more. Helping set up weather radios, getting the weather story graphics out, encouraging attending spotter classes, etc.

[kandicejanusz]

I remember this so well. We live just SW of Chicago. My girls and I hid in our hallway. I was watching it on TV coming from Iowa. My mom's neck surgery was the next day (11th) then passed away on the 14th.

[GBOSS]

I knew shit was serious when the emergency sirens went off half an hour before the storm arrived

[vuovdiii]

I'm from Cedar Rapids, and if you just drive around the city, there is damage present everywhere still. Half of the trees in the woods are gone, trees in neighborhoods are gone, it was really wild. Definitely one of the scariest storms I've been in.

[bluetoad]

A lot of people leave this out, but the massive crop damage was mainly caused by the abnormally dry/drought conditions prior to the derecho.
In July most of Iowa was under abnormally dry to drought conditions, some areas were even in a severe drought, which help to weaken and stressed most of the plants and crops in Iowa. The derecho mainly just finished the job the drought had started.

[tylertiefel]

I was in Cedar Rapids at the time and the key thing I remember was hearing that a couple hours west they had gotten hit by a big storm, was pretty much all you knew unless you were on top of it, was just a kinda cloudy day at first. Went a week without power and we did feel very abandoned, the pandemic didn't matter for that week we were all just happy to still be there.

[lollypopwolf]

I live in a small town near Cedar Rapids and can clearly recall that day. There was little talk about thunderstorms until dark clouds loomed from the west. It was quite eerie as there wasn't much news (due to the power outages) about what was coming towards us. My friend had just left my house with their parents and had about a 15-minute drive ahead of them. The wind started to pick up as I was outside admiring the colors of the storm. As the wind speed increased in a matter of seconds, my family grabbed our pets, headed to our basement, and took cover, as our assumption was that a tornado was just about to hit. The sirens went on around the time the wind hit, giving others little warning to take cover. We could hear the wind howling and the house creaking as it seemingly seemed to shift slightly on the foundation. The power went out shortly after the wind picked up and we were left having no idea whether we were hit by strong winds or a tornado. With the constant checking of our local weather app, it seemed we weren't the only ones confused about what was happening. Shortly after the winds hit, internet companies also went out, leaving us in the dark both figuratively and literally. As the EF2-EF3 equivalent winds slammed our house the only thing we could think about was the hope that others would be ok. Once the winds weakened after about 5-10 minutes (to my recollection) we checked out our windows and noticed flattened fields in the town. After quite some time after the winds halted, my sister and I took our phones and helmets and went outside to check on people around the town. It was still pouring outside but the winds had greatly lessened and had done so for a while. Opening the front door of our house we saw debris scattered around our yard. Any of the small trees in our yard had been snapped or were gone entirely. Shingles and siding from other houses lay tangled around our yard. A distinct white material, presumably insulation lay upon the ground everywhere scattered like confetti. Corn shucks and leaves were also prevalent with every step we took. My sister and I checked on people as power lines and trees were tossed and snapped. Although many trees and power lines lay destroyed, luckily no one from my town had gotten killed.

After the derecho, people were left without power for 3-7 days. The Internet was also down for a similar amount of time, leaving information through word of mouth or radio. Gas stations, if trees weren't blocking the route, were flooded with people trying to get gas for their cars or for the lucky few who had generators. Other towns that were hit not quite as hard, had lines filling highways for gas stations. Food spoiled as it was still August and quite warm outside. The homes that had well water, were also left without water for days. It all became very chaotic, but there was an extremely strong sense of community. Although there was no way to get help, everyone helped each other. People would help each other clean up debris and provide others a chance to shower or charge their phones if needed. Our town felt very distant from the world but we made sure we helped those who needed it.

I had spent days afterward helping clean up and luckily for me, we had a handheld old-school radio with enough batteries to power it. I would listen to the news and not hear much information as Iowa seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. Even the Iowa radio stations providing information felt closed off from the rest of the world. This continued days after we regained power and electricity, seemingly left to fend for ourselves. Not much was done to help our community or those around us besides from citizens around the area. Insurance also covered little of the damage to many people's homes. I had never seen people from my own community as strong and connected as I did right after the Derecho. Little to no media ever came of it, especially with how much was impacted. To this day there are still remnants of the mark the derecho left on us. Damage is still prevalent. It took years for even half of the trees that snapped during the derecho to be picked up. It also took years for communities to start to rebuild.

Schools around the area were going to start a week or two after the derecho, but due to the significant damage it had caused, many schools started in mid to late September. I can still recall having cross-country practice and having to jump over down power lines and calculating our way around the roads still covered in trees. Another thing I vividly recall from the derecho was afterward, during nighttime thousands of places had no light. Therefore if you were to look up into the sky you could see the Milky Way and all its stars. It was the little things that pushed people to appreciate everything and everyone they had.

Luckily my family is very weather-aware and knew what to do when disaster struck. The derecho also helped others become so too. Next time you hear a weather warning, please make note of it, it could save your life. It's better to be safe than sorry. I know I am rambling on, but I just want to stress the importance of awareness. The pictures I have of those days do little justice to the experiences many of us had. Thank you for listening to my story.

[OceanMan]

Great video Ethan
My life changed forever on 7/19/19 when a damaging derecho wipped across areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin

My home was totaled by 3 inch sized hailstones and 80+ MPH winds

[paulbradford]

I’ll never forget this day for as long as I live. I grew up not fearing thunderstorms. laughed off my wife’s concern about a thunderstorm w/ 90mph winds 2 hours west of CR. I knew it was time to move to the basement when our house lost power before the storm even hit our area. Looking out my basement sliding door I saw our woods flattened by an explosion of wind. It was like I could see the air coming right at us. We were lucky with only mild roof damage (still got a new roof out of it) but I developed PTSD. I have intense anxiety with every storm now. Even a forecast for severe weather scares me.

[LRamaekers]

I remember this event quite well. I live in Nebraska so I was able to see it. I was outside playing with friends when the weather started to turn bad. The temperature then dropped 20 degrees so I went inside. Just a few minutes later there were massive wind gusts. I also remember we lost shingles and part of our gutter. Our bird feeder was sideways in the wind but somehow survived.

[DiffusingAmerica]

I watched the event from inside Iowa’s tallest building. It was a fine morning, but then the entire western horizon went black. I foolishly watched the storm from one of the building’s star points, where a triangular part of the floor extrudes out and there are no columns. The windows vibrated violently and the curtain wall shook. Our second tallest building (a flat rectangle) intercepted so much rain that it waterfalled down the west side, and water sheets clipped the building edge and vortexed in different directions. When I went downstairs for lunch the revolving doors had been spun by the wind and the was dirt and plants inside the grand ave lobby from the outdoor planters. What a day! We got lucky compared to those East of DSM.

[DaBeezNeez]

Oh man this storm brings back some memories. I lived in the quad city area at the time and I watched the storm from my window. I saw grass flatten and trees fall from my small apartment. Lost power and I was lucky enough to have it restored after 14 hours. Went outside and drank some beers with my neighbors. The worst part was the cleanup, I was working cable and was replacing line after line for 10 hours a day every day for a month and I was lucky. Because of this storm I will never take the hard work of power and cable company workers for granted.

[lukasmalaise]

Never expected my tiny town to be mentioned online yet here I am

[aaronmett]

The Iowa derecho really caught me off guard. I remember looking at the radar in the morning before and I saw an odd looking storm near Sioux city SD. It had a very robust character and it seemed to be building. It ended up developing into the Iowa derecho. I was shocked later at lunch when I looked at the weather to see this massive derecho and that the SPC upgraded to a completely unanticipated moderate risk. I live well North of where it ended up hitting, but that's how weather can be in the Upper Midwest sometimes. The biggest weather event of the year completely out of the blue. I will also add that Wisconsin's biggest tornado outbreak in terms of the number of tornadoes, August 18th 2005 was also not forecasted until it was happening.

[dillyboyq]

Always LOVE anytime I see a June First vid!! Thank you for the premium content as always Ethan!

[eaglespirit]

Derecho was not a thing I knew even existed before August 2020.
There was little to no warning for this storm, not that there would have been much we could have done to prepare anyway. Where I live was just shy of the most powerful area of the storm, but the house where I live got very lucky with a weak spot. We only lost one small tree and some branches. My parents werent as lucky, losing an entire building. Along with a bunch of smaller damage, smashed car windows, a half dozen or so fruit trees destroyed, damage to other buildings, probably some stuff blown away from the destroyed building to never be seen again. Thankfully the house had very minimum damage.
The goverment assistance was abysmal. If you werent in the city or didn't have the *right* kind of damage you got nothing. My parents, who lost that building, years of fruit tree growth, and spend many many many hours cleaning up and repairing, wanna guess how much official assistance or compensation they got? Zero. They were lucky they had some old friends who helped with the big stuff. That still has me fuming.
It took until last year for some damage to be fully cleaned up. So many places had buildings or debris still visible for the longest time.
I am very glad for the REC (Rural Electric Company), the power where I live, was out maybe an hour. My parents house, power lines and poles fully downed on either side of the house just down the road, power back in I believe just 3 days. Some of the towns nearby didnt get power back for a week or more.

[LexiGutz]

I live in an area of Illinois that got hit pretty hard. West and slightly east of Morris. I remember seeing reports coming from Iowa about the Derecho, and had to warn family that this storm wasn't something to mess with. No one believed me until I sent photos of damage from Iowa. We lost power for over a week from the damage.

[revenevan]

0:21
For anyone wondering why they tell u to shelter in an interior room of your house with no walls directly to the outside... this image appears to be a folding patio chair impaled through the siding of a house.

[asap]

The videos that came out of this derecho are legendary, Iowa derechos are no joke for sure

[tornadostories]

A great retrospective of this fierce straight-line weather event.