SHELBY COUNTY, Iowa — Nearly two weeks ago, tornadoes ripped through Iowa, leaving multiple counties full of rubble and with millions of dollars worth of damages.
Nine counties are currently under disaster proclamations from the state; however, smaller counties are facing more repair than they can handle.
As those impacted by the tornado work to put the pieces back together, counties are looking at the damages from a bird's eye view.
Pottawattamie County, where the small town of Minden, Iowa is located, was arguably one of the towns hit worst by the tornadoes.
The county says they are facing over $20 million worth of damages, with 302 businesses and homes destroyed.
"Concentrated area of damage in our county has been Minden, but there are over 300 homes and businesses throughout the entire county that, have some sort of damage to them," said Craig Carlsen, Public Relations Manager, Pottawattamie County.
East of Pottawattamie County, Shelby County is estimating $50 million worth of damages, as the tornado stretched across the entire county.
"If you were to just drive through, you might see a couple houses here and there that got impacted and it might not look too bad," said Alex Londo, Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator. "But if you were to follow the path that took the tornado, you would see grain bins and homes that are just completely destroyed and leveled and debris everywhere."
Londo says repairing damages is a long ways away because most of the contractors are already contracted out for the next year.
However, with a large agricultural presence and major impacts to the farmlands, all hands are on deck for clean up.
"Right now, we're just trying to get the field picked up because we are a smaller and a more rural community, or county, and the area that's impacted was an appropriated town," Londo said. "So, there is a lot of agricultural business, and they need, these fields are planted, so they needed them picked up for when the crop does start to pop out of the ground."
Union County, where the town of Creston, Iowa is located, faces millions worth of damage, as 76 properties were impacted.
In the metro, Pleasant Hill, which is not under a disaster proclamation, is still facing major damage to 25 to 30 structures, with nearly 100 homes with minor damage.
The common theme across the board from counties is that they are thankful for all the help and support.
"I mean its really been a whole county effort to get this, to get us back to normal, its gonna take a long time, but everyone's been working," Londo said.
Londo told Local 5 that the state and FEMA plan to visit the county on Tuesday, to assess the damages and determine further funding and help.