Dear Iowa
- Katlyn Gerken
- Aug 20, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 1, 2021
Something that helped me cope when my family’s home was destroyed by a fire was the trip to Target to pick up basic supplies. (It sounds superficial. But when there's a fire, you cannot use any consumables or products that were in the structure – no matter how “fine” they look – because they were likely contaminated by carcinogens from the smoke.) As I walked into Target, the rush of air conditioning felt refreshing on what was turning out to be an 80+ degree October day, and I immediately noticed two things: the absence of the smell of smoke and the normalcy of the store. I clung to that normalcy; it was my escape. To know that all I had to do was leave my street and venture to Target, or any other store, for a brief reprieve from the living hell I was enduring brought me comfort.
But what do you do when your whole community is enduring that living hell and there’s no escape to normalcy?
Iowa holds a special place in my heart. I spent a few summers attending Loras College All-Sports Camp, am a proud graduate of Loras College, and spent too few summers working that same sports camp. Last weekend I was driving through the Hawkeye state to attend a wedding in Des Moines. As I drove south on Highway 151 to 1, I noticed white plumes of smoke every few miles. I soon realized what they were: burn piles. It was Friday, four days after the storm hit, and people were in the midst of cleaning up large trees on their even larger pieces of property. As I drove on, more destruction caught my eye: power poles snapped into pieces as if they were toothpicks; grain bins cracked in half as if they were Red Solo cups someone had stepped on.
The derecho that hit Iowa on Monday, August 10 brought hurricane-force winds, as derechos do, and destroyed at least 10 million acres of crops. It’s believed that 57 billion bushels of grain storage capacity suffered significant damage or were destroyed. Every school in Cedar Rapids suffered damage from the derecho. I’ll spare you from other pictures of destruction, because that’s not what this post is about.
The people of Iowa are some of the kindest, most genuine, hardest working individuals you’ll ever meet. “Iowa nice” as they say. (Really, that’s a thing. And I know it to be true.) I don’t have the magic answer to the question I asked in the beginning, but I do have faith in the strength and resilience of Iowans, many of whom I call “friend” and some of whom I call “family”.
To the linemen who are working to restore power, THANK YOU. To the farmers who have lost some or all of their crop, YOU ARE STRONG. To the first responders and city employees working 18-hour days, YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE. To every single person affected by this storm in any way, YOU WILL PERSEVERE. After all, it’s the Iowa way.
A street sign and tree were both damaged along Highway 1 in Martelle, Iowa, when a derecho struck the state on August 10.
Comments