Cityscape • February 2022 • Like A Seasoned Boxer

Every city should have some emergency planning in place, and if your community does not, it’s time to implement a plan. A plan helps to prepare for whatever Mother Nature may toss at us, from tornadoes to floods and now derecho events. Marshalltown has experienced two major disasters in two years.

Marshalltown was hit with an EF-3 tornado in July of 2018. This tornado had peak winds of 144 mph that caused significant damage on the north side of Marshalltown, the width of the city limits. The tornado damaged residential properties in their highest poverty areas, historic downtown including their iconic courthouse, a number of city buildings and two of the largest industrial employers as it left town.

After the tornado, the city started the clean-up efforts and assessed city buildings while debris was being removed. City Administrator Jessica Kinser stated, “If we don’t have safe spaces for our employees, we cannot serve the community.” Once the city buildings were secure, city staff then completed damage assessments of commercial and residential buildings to determine where they needed to red tag structures and started working with owners who had seen the worst damage.

The city had some outside assistance from crews from other cities such as Des Moines, Grimes, Tama and Toldeo. These cities lent their time and equipment to help with the recovery. The Iowa Department of Transportation and the Iowa Department of Corrections helped the city get through the tree and building debris. The Marshalltown Community College hosted Habitat for Humanity crews; the YMCA housed Team Rubicon and RSVP helped coordinate out-oftown volunteer work crews. The Central Business District and the United Way worked to help displaced homeowners and businesses. The community support and assistance from other cities helped Marshalltown complete clean-up efforts within eight weeks. Even though the clean-up was completed, rebuilding was a completely different story.

Rebuilding led to the community getting really involved in participating in a new Downtown Master Plan, which was completed in 2019. Marshalltown needed a new long-term vision for the downtown area devastated by the tornado. The public participated in that process more than they ever have before. The city believes the tornado brought them closer together as a community in ways that nothing else could. Marshalltown lost so much as a community, and there was collective mourning around the destruction. Neighbors that may not have known other neighbors became acquainted and worked together to clear streets and yards, aided by out-of-town volunteers as well. “Marshalltown Strong” was a tagline born in that disaster and one that you still see around the community.

The city also gained Habitat for Humanity of Iowa as a close partner and through “Marshalltown Hammers Back,” a number of homes in need of repair received some improvements.

The next disaster wasn’t far away. In 2020, a derecho with 99 mph sustained wind then hit every quadrant of the city, causing significantly more tree loss and more widespread residential property damage. With the knowledge they learned in 2018, Marshalltown started its road to recovery. Since so many other communities experienced damage in the derecho, they were unable to assist. But with the Iowa DOT and a private contractor, the city was able to clean up in six weeks despite so much more vegetative debris than with the tornado. Marshalltown started with the same assessment of the buildings as they did with the tornado, but instead of taking months, this process only took three days.

Marshalltown made the appropriate adjustments to their plan after everything they learned from the 2018 tornado. So, like a seasoned boxer being better able to take a second punch, Marshalltown knew what to expect and how to respond to the second hit.

The tornado was a learning experience. While it did not damage many employees’ homes, it was something they had never seen before. The best example of resiliency that was given was their city staff ’s response to the derecho. The city staff knew what to do as a team and could immediately start that response with the derecho. Team members came to work each day knowing that they had their own damage to deal with, but no one complained. Mayor Joel Greer stated, “City staff set the example by sending teams into the neighborhoods to assess the damage and help direct recovery, and so many church groups and businesses donated money and significant staff time. After the tornado, we received so many volunteers and donations that it was nearly impossible to track and manage. After learning from that, we put the infrastructure in place to handle donations and move towards recovery in a faster manner.”

Marshalltown accredits its volunteers for the rebuilding efforts. After the tornado, Marshalltown saw an outpouring of support outside the community. Because the derecho affected numerous communities, the outside support was not as vast, but the residents of Marshalltown took it upon themselves to take care of their own. The city saw a lot of neighbors stepping up after the derecho to help neighbors even though everyone was struggling with no power and lots of tree damage. Kinser stated, “I think having rebounded and being in the process of rebuilding from the first event, the derecho then even further strengthened our resolve as a community. We knew how to respond and saw community members get to work without a call to action.” The city says they still have a long way to go and 2022 will involve a lot of downtown building demolitions and addressing abandoned and unrepaired homes from both disasters.