Twas a hot and humid morning, the air very stifling. On radar, there was a huge storm cell full of orange, tan and black coming from the west. I can see the dark clouds a forming. National Weather Service issuing a Thunderstorm Watch. The local weather bureau went one further, issuing a Dangerous Storm Watch. Then changed it to Dangerous Storm Warning. I'm debating about leaving early to go into town to do errands and stop at my significant other's house.
12:15 PM
Going outside to water the plants. Dark clouds, getting darker. Phone rings, my brother is saying that the winds have picked up. Decided not to run into town early. Something is up and we just don't know it yet.
12:45 PM
The night light came on upstairs. Outside, it is deathly quiet. No birds are heard or seen.
1:00 PM
I'm watching the clouds begin to thicken and seen the upper clouds giving way to a greenish/blue. The silence is beginning with the oncoming roar of the winds. I quickly came back indoors, shut the computer down and watched as SHITSTORM 2020 roared through and for the next 45 minutes would change our way of life, as trees uprooted and spilled over the highway, and then watching power lines snap and give way and roofs being ripped apart. At 1:10 PM, I lost power.
They're called derechos, a Midwestern combination of straight lined winds, and thunderstorms, or a inland hurricane. I call these SHITSTORMS, for what they do is cause a lot a damage in a enlarged part of the US. We had Shitstorms, back in 2014 when a one two punch of shitstorms took out most of our trees and fell on top of our house and flooded the basement and we had no power for four days. That one did the most damage to our area. Shitstorm 2020 wiped out 2/3rd of the state. This makes the Flood of 2008 a walk in the park. Shitstorm 2020 caused damage and held together for a mind bogging 860 miles in four states. Yet, our fearless leader Donald Jackass Trump was too busy pulling up USPS mailboxes and calling Kamala Harris choice names. Worthless Joni Ernst, stayed away as well as Ashley Hinson, they figured they couldn't do anything to get the people's votes. Kegger Kim Reynolds finally decided to show up on Friday, five days after the Shitstorm But back to the original story.
2:00 PM
The shitstorm has moved away, but it was still raining lightly when I got into the car to make my way to work. The Neighbor's tree was blocking most of the road leading out but I made my way to the main road. There were trees down everywhichway. The turnoff to Hwy 1 was blocked by a tree as the house owner was doing his best to move it away. The Casey's sign, was turned upside down but the further I went down the road I could see destroyed grain silos, destroyed barns and debris lining up and down the road. The super sized silo at Martelle was crushed (as you can see in the photo). I made it to Mount Vernon. Trees everywhere and no power. It would be that way as I continued my trek to work.
(so much for taking C St to work)
It was chaos. Getting to Highway 30 was no problem but traffic begin to back up five miles away from the 380 turnoff. I made the big mistake of turning to a side street and finding uprooted trees in the way and (gasp) power lines down. I had some like minded people trying to follow me to find a way to get through town but I finally had to turn around and get back on the main drag. Thankfully a gravel road got me to the road to work. When I got to work, nobody was there and the cleaning people were leaving. The receptionist said they were on limited power and I should leave before being stuck there. So I made my way back to the road and took the long way home. It took me 20 minutes to move a mile to Shueyville Rd.
As I made my way south, every town was in the dark, every town had damage, every town had trees down. Solon had no power, the main place at Iowa City was dark and Iowa City was dark and dreary. Traffic sucked, there was no lights working and people would run stop signs and no lights just to save themselves. I made my way up to West Branch, where they too were dark. Somehow I found the road to Tipton and finally found a grocery store that was open and Mi Terra Mexican likewise. But Wally World and Dollar General was dark. Eventually, I made it back to Anamosa, to which I was shocked that the Fareway was open. For my efforts, I washed the car and called it a day.
Since then.....I was one of the lucky ones. Monday Night, I opened the window and watched the shooting stars on a dark night to which the stars appeared and without the light pollution I got to see a few meteors and thankfully it was a cool night, after the oppressive humidity. Surprisingly, I managed to sleep fairly well despite no electricity. At 10 in the morning, the power came on.
(J.Hall-Jones:Photo)
In the aftermath, Cedar Rapids and Marion got nailed. Downtown Marion's Park fared the worst. Zoey's Pizza's Kitchen area was exposed to the world, Francis Marion's statue got leveled and he lost his head in the process. The old train depot got smashed, The Granger House lost a lot of bricks but thankfully the roof held firm. My parents house's wooden fence fell down. Six days later, Marion, CR, Mount Vernon and Ely are still without power.
Since I lived away from the CR area and more north, we didn't get the full brunt of the storm but rather a glancing love tap. The neighbor's flag pole (originally part of the Viola school) is bent at a 45 degree angle but it's still flying the flag. Anything south of 151 got hit and hit hard. From Boone, to Ames, to Des Moines to Marshalltown, to CR to Davenport, this is the perfect shit storm, probably as bad as the 1925 Tri State Tornado which might have been a deecho or shit storm but probably worse in today's dollars. But a disaster is a disaster.
I took a drive up 151 and once I left Anamosa, the crops were looking better and not bent or smashed over. A shame for the farmers that the bumper crop of corn is ruin due to Shit Storm 2020. Once I got to Monticello, the busted silos and barns were gone. Dubuque was open for business so I stopped at Moondog to pick up the new Bush and Deep Purple albums and a handful of 45s. And still was trying to put the overall opinion of Shit Storm 2020. I knew Martin Birch passed away, and then Pete Way Friday. I haven't posted the Beaker Street playlist since it hasn't arrived in my inbox. A lot of folk complained about the song selection but I think Chris Rea's Road To Hell was one, Whipping Post was another. and a Plant/Page number from Unplugged.
https://littlevillagemag.com/caught-in-the-storm-in-cedar-rapids-brian-johannessen/?fbclid=IwAR0ehsuLkj4w0AMvuvHfln7bvwQ-4R2wpE5NY-hfQN0JG9x6PE3bwPxW8ss
There'll be updates from time to time till we all get back online. But for those who have lived through this shit storm it will make us stronger than ever when the next shit weather event comes. And we all know that will happen.
