Last week, a storm with winds up to 112 mph bulldozed the Midwest, flattening 37 million acres of crops and damaging thousands of homes and businesses. But chances are you’ve heard very little about it.
The storm was called a derecho, also known as a land hurricane, and it completely upended much of Iowa. At least three people are dead, more than 8,200 homes were destroyed, and about a third of the state’s cropland was wiped out. In total, the storm cost the state about $4 billion in damages. Thousands of Iowans still don’t have power, and many who have been left homeless aren’t sure where to turn for help due to the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions the state has enforced.
It is a “crisis within a crisis,” according to Stacey Walker, who serves on Linn County’s board of supervisors. But few media outlets paid any attention until Iowa’s officials began pressing the Trump administration to hasten its federal assistance.
The little coverage Iowa’s derecho did receive came in the form of wire stories that focused largely on the immediate effects, but not much on the damage that still remains. Instead, networks spent hours pushing an evidence-free conspiracy theory this week that alleges that the U.S. Postal Service is working with President Trump to steal the 2020 election. Other publications spent hundreds of words debating the future of college football and whether athletes should be allowed to play in the age of the coronavirus. And all the while, Iowans suffered through what Walker is calling the state’s “Katrina moment.”
“This is Iowa’s Katrina,” Walker told the Washington Post, referring to the devastating hurricane that rocked the United States in 2005. “Literally, Iowa was hit with a hurricane-style meteorological event. It seems crazy to say that, but it’s true.”
Trump has already signed an order sending emergency relief funds to Iowa, and the National Guard should soon be on its way to help Iowans begin picking up the pieces. But it’s a shame it took so many days for the rest of the country to understand what our friends and neighbors in Iowa were experiencing. And now that we know, we should do what we can to help.
