Cedar Rapids, Iowa — The Iowa Derecho Resource site is a busy place. An older car dealer building’s shop is now a grocery/supply store for victims of the Derecho. People can take whatever they need. Lots of people come by also with donations.
“So anybody affected by the Derecho Storm I believe it’s 26 counties that were identified in the disaster,” said Raymond Sidell, who launched this effort as a Facebook group, the night the storm hit. “We have helped quite a few counties more locally with our location here, but we’re happy to help anyway we can.
This center has also helped many in need after the derecho struck.
“We’re still doing some estimates, but it looks like we’ve helped around 14,000 households since the storm hit,” said Sidell. “We plan to be here at least to the end of October.”
One of the hardest hit areas was Cedar Terrace Apartments in southwest Cedar Rapids. Three buildings had heavy damage or their roofs blown off, making the buildings not fit to reside in. A manager for the facility said many have sought temporary housing, and are anxious to return. Owners are still pondering plans to possibly rebuild. The complex still has two buildings which survived the storm.
Across town City trucks along with Iowa DOT crews are working to remove piles of tree limbs, and giant trees. It’s estimated Cedar Rapids lost 65% of it’s tree canopy.
“We lost a lot of mature trees through the derecho, and some of these are hundred to two hundred years old,” said Shannon Ramsay, President, and Founder of Trees Forver in Marion. The group works to help plant new trees, and take care of existing trees. “I think we’ve all seen a lot of big oaks go down so literally it will take decades to go back our tree canopy so it’s we have to get started and we have to have a systematic every single year communities will need to be out planting.”
Trees Forever will be running a campaign called Planting Hope to raise money to start the decades of planting to replace all that is lost.
The Iowa Derecho Storm Resource Center will stay open at least through October.