It's been 24+ hours since the derecho hit Iowa. Because my family spent so much time living in truly rural areas (Cedar Rapids is a city), my folks have a generator, which is currently the only power source in their neighborhood.

My parents' house, which has 3 trees still on the roof and a full ass HOLE in one of the walls that my father has duct taped over, is basically ground zero for phone charging. The community has taken it on themselves to pull out chainsaws, trucks, and **try** to clear the road.

Saying that the derecho that hit the midwest was "like a tornado" is like saying that COVID is like the flu.

I was living in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area during the 2008 flood and jesus fuck, even as horrifically devastating as that 500-year flood was, it didn't take out the entire city.

This did.

Iowa getting devastated by an inland hurricane of a natural disaster during a pandemic while under the leadership of an absolutely incompetent governor is... not good.

If you're like "so what," start tracking food prices. 10 million acres of farmland were damaged in Iowa alone.

update: the tree removal folks made it to my parents' house.

there is no way to take the three trees off of their roof without the entire house collapsing. it's structurally unsound and the fact that they've been living there for 3 days is terrifying. #derecho

i have a significant amount of extended family in the area and so my folks will be okay - they've got insurance, they have a place to stay.

but imagine if there were trees on top of or crashed into and THROUGH more than half of the buildings in brooklyn. that is cedar rapids.

imagine a blackout that lasts THREE DAYS AND IS STILL GOING, food spoiled and nigh impossible to obtain because grocery stores got destroyed too (!!), a majority of roads unusable because of downed trees and debris - and it STILL hasn't been declared a federal disaster

the thing about derechos and tornadoes is that you do not see them coming in the same way you would get advanced notice for a hurricane. in the midwest, storms just DROP on you and there's nowhere to go.

(go bags aren't a prepper thing so much as natural disaster preparedness.)

anyway, you know it's bad when you've previously lived in a rural country town that was leveled by an F5 tornado and, in discussing the derecho, your mom still says "an F5 would have been kinder."

a thing to also note is the number of insurance companies in the midwest that STILL categorize tornadoes, at least, as "acts of god" that can't be covered (??!!) and so dear lord i don't even know how they're gonna try to avoid paying people out for this kind of storm

also the @DMRegister is reporting that 50% of crops are a loss in the state of Iowa this year

the economic fallout for farmers, ag workers. incalculable.

lots of folks have responded to this thread/DMd asking how they can help folks in the cedar rapids area who got hit by the derecho. match my donation to horizons, which operates the local meals on wheels?

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/horizonsiowa?locale.x=en_US