The Iowa Department of Transportation helps clean the streets of State Center on Sunday. The state workers were on multiple streets, moving large piles of debris.

A lot of progress has been made since a destructive derecho tore through Marshall County on Aug. 10.

Power is being restored and most of the county will have electricity again by the end of the day Tuesday.

On Sunday, the Alliant website listed 2,421 outages and 80,836 customers without power in Marshall County. The high reported number is a combination of factors, which has a lot to do with the number of meters, but also includes geographical groupings.

The reported meters includes residential customers and business customers. Some have multiple meters. When a storm causes outages, especially larger storms, Alliant groups areas into geographical areas and several nearby counties are included in Marshall County’s numbers.

Cindy Tomlinson, an Alliant spokesperson, said the company reached the halfway point in restoring power to customers on Sunday and she expects tremendous progress in the next 24 hours.

More workers are coming to assist — companies from across the United States have been lending their employees to Alliant for assistance.

“Everybody has been helping so much and it is an amazing sight to see,” Tomlinson said. “We are so appreciative of them and we know our customers appreciate them. We will get power to those who have now been without for seven days.”

Tomlinson said homeowners need to have an electrician check the connections to their homes to ensure electricity is flowing into their homes once power is restored to their immediate area.

Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper, serving as the city’s public information officer, said the city is very appreciative of the work Alliant has done.

As clean-up continues and power is restored, he said Marshalltown residents can put vegetative debris on curbs but urged no building material be included in the piles. Tupper said the compost facility has waived fees and has extended hours from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days per week.

“It is OK if you put stuff on the curb, but if you have the ability to take stuff yourself, please do so,” Tupper said. “It helps everybody out. The city will get to all the piles, but it will take a long time to get to everybody. We just ask everyone to please be patient.”

Tupper said there were no deaths attributed to the storm. However, UnityPoint — Marshalltown has had an increase in the number of carbon monoxide poisonings, which is attributed to the increased use of generators.

If anyone is using generators, it is important to keep it outside, away from walls and windows to avoid poisoning.

Smaller towns

Marshall County Emergency Management Director Kim Elder said the Marshall County towns that were hit the worst from the derecho were Marshalltown, Melbourne, State Center and Le Grand.

“They got the brunt of it,” she said. “The towns in the southern and northern parts of the county also got hit, but not as bad. However, just because someone was not hit as hard, does not mean it is not still bad.”

Elder has not yet received all of the assessments from the city governments, so she does not yet know the full scope of the damage. As soon as the information is gathered, it is sent to the state, because Elder said the city and county governments are not equipped to completely handle the aftermath. Elder said the state is not equipped to handle the full magnitude of the destruction either, especially after Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for 25 counties — including Marshall.

Reynolds is expected to submit an application for a federal disaster declaration on Monday, as an estimated 10 million acres of crops were damaged, three Iowans were killed and more than 500,000 residents lost power throughout the state.

Elder said Marshalltown did not received federal assistance after the 2018 tornado. Every disaster, she said, has an assistance process that must be followed.

“It starts and ends locally,” Elder said. “It starts with neighbors helping neighbors and cities helping themselves. That’s the first step. Then the cities ask for state help and this time there are a lot of resources going to lot of places. The storm exceeded what Iowa has, so the next step is asking for assistance from the federal government.”

Like Marshalltown, State Center had widespread damage.

Mayor Steve Sodders said Iowa Department of Transportation vehicles arrived in town on Sunday to help with the clean-up.

“They brought trucks, loaders, and are going from street to street and picking up debris,” Sodders said.

There was not a single street in State Center that was not impacted. Trees were uprooted, some houses were damaged and the city lost a shed. Fortunately, Sodders said no one was injured. Plus, the city has a generator which got everyone on the grid up and running within five minutes, he said.

“It is huge to have that — especially for a small town,” Sodders said. “People did not lose groceries. They still had their air conditioning. We lost cable and most of the internet is not working, but it’s minor compared to Marshalltown.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com