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Main Street cleaning up another mess

T-R Photo by Thomas Nelson Jonathon Hull cleans up glass from a broken window after the derecho damaged his building on West Main Street. This is the second time a natural disaster has left the building broken.

Marshalltown’s Main Street is picking up after a massive storm for the second time in two years.

Business owners along Main Street are dealing with the aftermath of Monday’s derecho, which destroyed store fronts, broke windows and pulled up plants.

Johnathon Hull, owner of Willard building, does not know if he’ll be able to rebuild again.

“I’ve been through it once and I don’t want to go through it again to be honest,” Hull said.

The situation is familiar to Hull, a lot of the damage he took on from the 2018 tornado happened again on Monday.

He will have to have the building assessed for structural damage and have an insurance claims adjuster stop.

“It’s my second time with my insurance company,” he said. “They were fair with me the first go around and I assume they will be here, too.”

A lot of the damage caused by the derecho came from the nearby Ibiza building next door which is still in disrepair from the tornado.

Bricks and debris broke windows and boards in the building.

One brick broke through a window and was blown down 30 feet of stairs.

Hull has a children’s pool set up to catch water that came in from holes in the roof. Glass shards are all over the carpeted floor.

“The carpet’s going to trash with the glass,” Hull said.

He cannot dry the floors until electricity is restored to the building.

Julie Schossow, owner of the Optical Center, sat outside most of Thursday morning helping customers with their glasses that showed up to her store.

“I had all my calls forwarded to my cell,” Schossow said. “I’m trying to make myself available.”

Luckily her home now has power, and her building sustained minimal damage.

“Nothing like the tornado,” she said. “I really fared well, but unfortunately the whole town got it this time so it’s almost worse.”

Schossow has heard of some vandalism and thefts in the downtown area.

“This is a couple times worse (than the tornado),” Hull said. “Everybody got hit.”

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Contact Thomas Nelson at 641-753-6611 or tnelson@timesrepublican.com

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