Greene County emergency management director Dennis Morlan estimates property damage from Monday’s storm at more than $10 million countywide. That figure is still preliminary, as he is still getting reports of damage. He anticipates applying for a disaster proclamation from the state.
Morlan was quick to praise the efforts of public safety personnel across the county. “I’m really pleased with the job all of them did,” he said.
Notice of the approaching storm was short. He first got notice of a possible storm at 9 am. He watched the storm on radar as it went through Crawford and Carroll counties. “I’ve never seen anything so wide with such wind speeds. I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said. Morlan has been emergency management director since 1988.
He notified county fire departments to prepare and to sound warning sirens. He credits that for the fact no one was injured during the storm. He said he knew of a couple of health events related to clean-up efforts.
“I’ll continue to preach that every home, every business should have a weather radio or an app on a phone, something to be aware of the weather,” he said.
The storm had the most impact in Jefferson and Rippey. According to Morlan, there was minimal damage in Scranton. Churdan had some power outages and some damage. Paton had “minimal, if any damage” and did not lose power. There were sporadic power outages in Grand Junction and minimal damage.
The storm turned toward the south after passing through Jefferson. In Rippey, Heartland Coop sustained multi-million dollar damage to grain bins, the fertilizer facility and the elevator.
In Jefferson, a “significant” portion of the roof at Cobblestone Inn came off and the building sustained water damage on the top two floors. Guests had been evacuated before the storm hit. A portion of the roof at the Super 8 also came off, as well as a portion of the municipal building roof, Morlan said.
A pair of outdoor lumber sheds were damaged at Tri-County Lumber and campers were flipped over at Greene County Motors/Holiday RV.
Trees were broken in both the Jefferson Municipal and St Joseph Catholic cemeteries, with some damage to headstones.
Immediately after the storm passed the Jefferson PD and fire department went out to block streets where power lines were down. City crews began the work of clearing large trees from streets. By the end of the regular work day streets were again passable. The city crew worked into the evening at the city yard waste site, stacking debris that was being hauled in by residents with trucks, trailers, and even in the trunks of their cars.
The city has hired a company to do the first pass of the town, picking up debris curbside. That work is under way. The regular city chipping will be done starting Aug. 24. Tree debris not picked up on the first sweep will be picked up then.
Morlan did not yet have an estimate of crop damage. Where the storm was at its worst, corn fields were laid flat.
Jefferson residents were without power until about 7:30 pm. Alliant Energy serves the town. According to Alliant, as of noon Tuesday there were still 200,000 customers in Iowa without service.
“The storm created damage beyond what we’ve seen before and it could take several days before the majority of services are restored,” stated Terry Kouba, SVP at Alliant Energy and president of the Iowa Utility Company in a press release.
Longtime Jefferson residents were reminded of the derecho winds that passed through Aug. 5, 1988, saying that damage was worse than Monday’s storm.
Morlan, looking from a countywide perspective, disagrees. He had been on the job as emergency management director just five weeks when the derecho passed through. He said the difference is the size of the storm. “Yes, we had damage. Yes, we had a lot of tree damage. But this one covered more of the county,” he said.
He will request a disaster declaration when he has more complete damage information. A state disaster declaration for the county will make state resources available to respond to and recover from effects of the form, and it would make Iowa Individual Assistance grants available to qualifying households.
He has the perspective of decades of public service. “We can clean up the trees. We can deal with the rest of it. But thank God we walked away with no injuries,” he said.
