HAPPENINGS IN IOWA – SUMMER OF 2024

JAMIE MERTZ Director of Dealer and Government Affairs [jamiem@ineda.com]

While we have dodged the legislative storms that have been occurring across the border in Nebraska, we have experienced our own storms – actual ones that wreaked havoc on many areas throughout the state, particularly the central/southeastern and northwest IA.

Greenfield IA had an EF-4 tornado go through town, destroying over 150 homes, damaging many trees and fields, we saw some wind turbines get toppled by the tornado, downed power lines, and unfortunately there were 4 people that lost their lives during this event. Minden, IA was also hit on the same day by an EF-3 tornado and lost 40% of the homes in its town.

In the month of June, Rock Valley, IA and other communities in Northwest Iowa were impacted by severe flooding. Town and Country Implement in Rock Valley was impacted the most by the flooding between the store itself and its employees. We had other dealerships nearby that also had employees living in Rock Valley that were affected by the flood, Faber’s Farm Equipment in Inwood and AgriVision Equipment in Sioux Center, IA.

A total of 11 employees at these dealerships were affected. 4 of them had a total loss of their home. The average amount of damage to homes was between $50-75,000. Many homes had water just in their basements, which the estimate of damage to repair was around $50k. If the water made it to the main level, the amount to repair the damage would be around $75k. The homes that were a total loss, the options for those were either a low interest loan (30 year at 2.6%) through SBA (associated with FEMA), or a buyout of 19% below market value of the property in which case FEMA will buy the property out and not allow any buildings to be built back on a place where there is a high chance of flooding again. That is a tough situation to be in if you are the homeowner. Do you rebuild or take the buyout and cut your losses and move to another location or town with higher ground.

Rock Valley has had flooding in 2014, 2019, and then again, this year with this year being the worst in the history of the town. The flood stage was 10’ higher than the highest recorded. The flooding at the dealership saw standing water 30” deep inside the building. Anything that was in the water was damaged to the point it needed to be replaced.

Office furniture, all the items on the showroom floor, any parts in the parts room on shelves that sat in water were destroyed. Damage was extensive to 120HP & under tractors that were affected. The tractors above that sat high enough that the water did not get into the cabs of the tractors, but they still must change oil, filters and go through the machine to see if there is any other damage done.

When visiting the dealership, they were still under construction and trying to get all the offices and showroom floor finished up so they could move back in. You could see the sense of urgency with everyone to get everything back to normal, especially with harvest being right around the corner. It was amazing that the dealership was closed for only one week. When speaking with Ivan about what we could do for him, he was more concerned about helping his employees than he was about getting help for the business. Dan Faber was the same way when he learned of his employees that lost their homes, he did everything in his power to help them find temporary living.

Over the past 40 years, Iowa has had 82 weather related events that have caused over $1 billion dollars of damage for each event. The average number of events in the past 5 years is up to 4.8 events per year with the average since 1980 being only 1.8 events per year. Damage has been caused by a variety of weather events such as blizzards, hail damage, tornadoes, and heavy rainfall followed by massive flooding.

In 2018, 34 counties received presidential disaster declarations due to severe storms and flooding. Four of the counties hit the worst that summer were Lee, Marion, Marshall, and Van Buren. Vermeer in Pella was hosting its 70th anniversary event when the tornado hit. There were around 400 Vermeer dealers in attendance that day. The tornado caused widespread damage, destroying over 400,000 square feet of manufacturing facilities, tossing many cars and trucks about in the parking lot. Fortunately, there were no fatalities, just minor injuries. The same day a tornado tore through the middle of Marshalltown.

In 2019, the Missouri river flooded and broke several levees that caused 48 miles of Interstate 29 to be closed due to the damage caused by the flooding. Many towns and fields along the river were under water. The AgriVision locations in Pacific Junction and Hamburg were destroyed by the flood waters resulting in a multi-million-dollar loss. It was estimated that the total damage caused by the flooding in western IA in 2019 was $1.6 billion.

In 2020, Iowa experienced a derecho which caused widespread damage throughout the central portion of the state leaving many businesses and families rebuilding from the devastation brought by the massive winds. The city of Marshalltown, after rebuilding only two years prior from the EF-3 tornado that hit it, was hit again and forced to clean up again and rebuild. The total damage caused in the state during this storm was estimated at $11.2 billion dollars. Crop damage was estimated at a total of $490.8 million.

INEDA has a disaster relief aid fund to help members who are involved in a declared natural disaster. This year alone, we have been able to help 4 individual members and 17 of their employees that were affected by natural disasters. Please reach out to Jamie Mertz (IA) or Phil Erdman (NE) to answer any questions you may have questions on state and federal aid and to get an INEDA disaster relief form. We are here to help our members and want to make sure you have all the available information for relief assistance. For more information on federal aid, go to https://www.fema.gov/. For state aide in IA, go to https://iid.iowa.gov/. For state aid in NE, go to https://nema.nebraska.gov/disasterassistance-resources.php.