JASPER COUNTY, Iowa — It's been eight days since an unprecedented derecho brought hurricane-like winds through Iowa. Now, there are still many with no power, and so many more with long lists of repairs.
For several, like Michael House, work on clearing out debris has been non-stop.
"Our neighbors lost a lot of big trees," House said. "We've been working on that for three days straight.
House said a lot of progress has been made on clearing out his rural Jasper County property, the damage was still significant.
"There's just a lot of damage, especially with the big trees," House said. "That's the loss, because you've got some 150-year-old trees that are gone."
House lives just across the street from a county park. According to House, a park ranger said they estimated about 60% of the trees within the park are gone.
Other parts of Jasper County saw fields of crops flattened and grain bins blown in by the strong winds; co-ops are trying to salvage what little they can out of bins that are no longer standing.
Jasper County still reeling from derecho destruction
Things look better than they did a few days ago, but there's days, possibly weeks left of work to be done before it's anything like normal. In the meantime, the people of Jasper County know they'll get it done by helping each other out; Iowans being Iowans.