Derecho: One Year Later

It's been a full year since the derecho of August 10, 2021 swept through Eastern Iowa, leaving unprecedented destruction, at a scale most residents had never witnessed before. These images are but a few I posted on my website shortly after the event last year, and were captured in Cedar Rapids and Marion Iowa. Unimaginable sustained straight-line winds of up to 140 mph occurred in the nearby town of Hiawatha. The derecho, rated as the most costliest US land thunderstorm ever, caused an estimated $11 billion in damage. Power was out in many rural locations for a month or more. 669,000 mature trees in Cedar Rapids were lost, about 70% of its urban canopy. Curbside cleanup of the storm in Cedar Rapids was finally completed around July 1 of this year, with four million cubic yards of tree debris being removed. The Iowa DNR estimates 4.4 million trees were lost in the state overall. Home and business roofing and siding restoration continues to this day. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.