Hurricane-force storm in Iowa flattens 10 million acres of crops
A powerful derecho storm that swept through the Midwest on Monday has left thousands of acres of crops completely devastated, and officials say more than half a million people could be without power for quite a while.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said the storm, which had hurricane-force winds up to 112 mph, destroyed at least one-third of the entire state's crops. More than 10 million acres were completely flattened, leading Reynolds to say she thinks the storm should qualify for federal disaster declaration. The Washington Post reports between 180 and 270 million bushels of corn were likely damaged, shortly before harvesting usually begins in September.
The storm left one man dead in Iowa and one woman in Indiana. Teams are working to restore power, though USA Today reports full recovery could take weeks.
Photos demonstrate just how dramatic and widespread the damage was:
This is from around in Greene County, Iowa just NW of Perry
Jim Smith the corn was suffering from the drought. Then we got a little rain last week. And now this. All eight of my corn fields look this flat and quite a bit of it snapped not just leaning. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/hFOTn1AZ7a
— Jim Smith, Ph.D. (@JimSmith87) August 11, 2020
Continuing to see more and more pictures of the damage and it's devastating and unbelievable. It's so widespread across so many counties in eastern Iowa. This is from Darrell Werning near Vinton.#iawx #derecho #iowa pic.twitter.com/YF5Xq5dBJy
— Rebecca Kopelman (@KopelmanWX) August 12, 2020
Here's what today's storm did to this area in Madrid, Iowa. Photo courtesy: Brian Myers. @WHO13news pic.twitter.com/6CvnS29QVo
— Dave Price (@idaveprice) August 10, 2020
Here's the view from space showing Iowa's corn fields before and after the storm, which produced wind gusts over 100 mph. pic.twitter.com/caPPHpIDjU
— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) August 12, 2020
CHECK THIS OUT: A powerful storm hit the Midwest and the winds were so strong they damaged these grain bins in Iowa!
Picture from Elizabeth Venteicherhttps://t.co/Ol6VOOyUzu pic.twitter.com/uora758qPA— WMBF News (@wmbfnews) August 11, 2020
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