More than 150 residential homes, 126 mobile homes and 10 multifamily properties sustained major damage from the Aug. 10 derecho and seven were completely destroyed.

The assessment of derecho damage conducted by the city of Marshalltown categorized properties using the FEMA Preliminary Damage Assessment Guide:

• Affected properties, 2,052

• Minor damage, 568

Fallen branches caused a lot of the structure damaged from the Aug. 10 derecho. Numerous homes and businesses in Marshalltown were damaged by falling branches or felled trees.

• Major damage, 151

• Destroyed, 7.

“Staff in the Housing and Community Development Department worked for weeks to gather the data that was requested to support an individual assistance declaration,” City Administrator Jessica Kinser said. “We aren’t sure what will happen, but property owners should continue to work on the clean-up and repair of their properties.”

Michelle Spohnheimer, Marshalltown housing and community development director said many of the structures are repairable but some will certainly be demolished.

“At this point those decisions are being made by property owners,” she said.

The disaster is comparable to the 2018 tornado and in many ways surpasses the damage caused by the cyclone.

“This is another disaster similar in many ways to the tornado,” Spohnheimer said. “Even worse in some ways as we have seen more properties impacted overall. There will be some loss in property value due to the event, but the majority will be repaired and/or rebuilt hopefully resulting in a net increase in value in a couple of years.”

The 2018 tornado only damaged 2,020.

“With the tornado it was the first time we had ever had to conduct a wide spread assessment of damages before,” Spohnheimer said. “It took us a long time to get that done. Following the derecho, staff was able to begin that work first thing Tuesday morning. We knew what to do and how to best focus our resources.”

There was not one part of Marshalltown that received the majority of damage.

“After canvasing the entire community we can confidently say that the damage was city wide,” Spohnheimer said. “Several businesses along Iowa Avenue had substantial damage as well as many homes on the northern side of town where large trees still remained.”

The city does not have a total cost of the damage caused. There is assistance for some people with damaged property. Spohnheimer said the vast majority of the damage will not require people to buy permits from the city – such as replacing shingles, siding, windows, fences and tree clean-up. She is suspecting there will be tens of millions of dollars of reconstruction costs.

“Lower income residents can contact MICA to see if they qualify for the relief available,” Spohnheimer said. “Following the tornado we did see the opportunity to participate in some grant programs through the state and federal government. It is possible that we may have similar opportunities in the future as a result of this event.”

The derecho might have been the worst natural disaster to ever hit Marshalltown.

“It is devastating to see the level of damage Marshalltown had yet again,” Spohnheimer said. “As a community we are now working through three disasters — the tornado, COVID and the derecho.

She said this is a hard time for residents and businesses of Marshalltown. However, the community has proven its strength through the people coming together to support one another and to help out.

“I am very proud of the city staff I work with on a daily basis, while most had their own damage at home they still managed to focus attention and work towards improving the safety of the community,” Spohnheimer said.

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Contact Thomas Nelsonat 641-753-6611 or

nelson@timesrepublican.com