On Monday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa we had a derecho, otherwise known as an inland hurricane. Winds were reported up to 120mph and the storm lasted nearly an hour. Virtually every business and house was affected and most of the city has been without power since Monday. 10 MILLION acres of crops were absolutely destroyed. You would not believe the devastation.

By no means the smartest place to be, but I was in my Ford Excursion and watched the storm ravage a commercial property that I have. About 20,000 feet of roof was torn off, dock doors were blown in, warehouse walls were blown out, and rooftop HVAC units were knocked off their perches. My guys have worked around the clock to get to the point that all 4 businesses in this complex can open (we got power on Friday). Tarps everywhere, temporary rubber roofs in place, and all of the interiors have been cleaned. My house, along with most others still do not have power. We are fortunate to have generators.

Crazy thing is, though, that this is Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and when the times get tough we band together and kick ass. There has been no looting (that I know of) or lawlessness. Neighbors took it upon themselves to clear trees off the hundreds of blocked streets, and help each other overcome the damages.On the heels of Covid, this really sucks, but as one neighbor said today we will have plenty of firewood to have a great big block party when it is all over! It is really hard to stomach watching people intentionally tear down cities when things like this happen.

I did not attach any links, but you can google Cedar Rapids derecho and you will see plenty. I am proud of our town and it certainly shows how to handle adversity. Not asking for anything at all, other than maybe send some good vibes our way.

Being a farmer I watched all of the destruction of agriculture but not really the business or residential. I certainly feel for you and everyone else in the path of that monster.

Well said. The intentional destruction that is going on across the country is a crying shame, period.

[QUOTE= I am proud of our town and it certainly shows how to handle adversity. Not asking for anything at all, other than maybe send some good vibes our way.[/QUOTE]

You live in real America.

Even worse, there seems to be a lack of balls among the general public in these cities.
A repeat of the “Hardhat Riot” in 1970 NYC would be nice to see.

Our HQ office in Cedar Rapids got hit pretty hard. Sounds like the same story, dock doors blown in then roof came off. Insulation went everywhere! Lost quite a bit of inventory and machinery to rain water.

Was an absolutely wild storm. Our facility got incredibly lucky, a few doors will need replaced an and couple ac units damaged but roof stayed intact. We manufacture feed trailers and did have a couple pieces of new equipment blow over in the yard but all is repairable and no one got hurt here. Amazing to watch a community come together to help each other out.

Weather Channel has been covering it. Not seeing sh!t about it on national news. Devastating. Here in Central IL we only saw about 60 MPH max gusts from it so minimal damage. Some farmers may never recover from the loss of crop and property (grain bins, etc.).

I am very familiar with Iowa Fluid Power. My property is just west of there on the corner of Blair’s Ferry and Council Street. It is in the top right hand corner of your picture. I have know Don Kaas for years. Are they ever going to get moving on the addition? I might have some lease space available if they are busting at the seams!

Small world! I haven't heard the latest on the addition schedule. It was supposed to be completed this year before Covid hit. Jim has a second warehouse across town that is being used for inventory storage until the roof is fixed.

Don was scheduled to fly down for dinner last week but said they didn't have enough generator to get the hanger door open! I think that was code for "I changed my destination from Kansas to Florida.."