I talked to my cousin today, she lives in Cedar Falls. Her place had no damage. Tough luck, hope everything else is OK.
Monday's Derecho's path was something like 770 miles of run across several states, starting in SoDak; worst damage is in a ~ 45 mile swath in Iowa; my place, just east of Cedar Rapids was in the sweet spot.
There's 150' tall high voltage towers down; 34.5kV, 69kV & 115kV main lines are down that supplies much of this area. We had winds > 100mph for the better part of an hr. Been thru hurricanes back east in Maryland, but never seen anything like this. Its like Godzilla came thru.
Thankfully, my family and friend's weren't hurt, and our house, other than some flashing and fascia, seems fine. Barns can be replaced. Trees can be chopped up. With the power and water situation not improving soon, I sent my wife and most of my kids to her folks in PA. I have a generator, but that only does so much.
