Tag Archives: derecho

High Alert across the Plains to the Midwest as major storms wreak havoc

severe-weather-5.20.24

Important Takeaways:

  • Second destructive derecho in a week slams central US with 100-mph winds, baseball-sized hail
  • On Thursday, a derecho plowed across parts of Texas and Louisiana, blasting the Houston metro area with winds up to 100 mph that left at least seven people dead and more than 1 million customers in the dark.
  • Cleanup efforts are underway across parts of the central U.S. after a destructive derecho blasted across Kansas with 100 mph wind gusts and baseball-sized hail, causing major damage and knocking out power to tens of thousands of utility customers across the region.
  • This is now the second derecho in a week to blast parts of the U.S. On Thursday, a derecho plowed across parts of Texas and Louisiana, blasting the Houston metro area with winds up to 100 mph that left at least seven people dead and more than 1 million customers in the dark.
  • Damaging wind reports stretch more than 400 miles across Kansas
  • Millions of people from the Plains to the Midwest will be on alert for powerful thunderstorms capable of producing damaging wind gusts, large hail and possible tornadoes.
  • The highest threat of severe weather will be found across portions of the Plains on Monday, but the potential for powerful storms will also have people in cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Des Moines in Iowa on alert.

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Iowa says derecho storm destroyed grain storage bins as Trump heads to state

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A severe windstorm last week destroyed or seriously damaged more than 57 million bushels of commercial grain storage capacity in Iowa and a similar amount on farms, the state’s agriculture department estimated on Tuesday, raising concerns ahead of the autumn harvest.

Fresh estimates of the damage from the Aug. 10 derecho emerged as U.S. President Donald Trump prepared to visit Iowa, the top U.S. corn producing state, the day after approving disaster aid for the state.

The storm crumpled steel storage bins, flattened corn fields, caused widespread damage in towns and left thousands of people without power.

The destruction compounded troubles for a U.S. agricultural economy already battered by extreme weather, the U.S.-China trade war and disruptions to labor and food consumption from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Iowa’s agriculture department said it will cost more than $300 million to remove, replace or repair the damaged grain storage bins.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Grant McCool)