‘How do you prepare for that?’: Cedar Rapids city officials reflect on lessons learned during 2020 derecho

CEDAR RAPIDS — On Aug. 10, 2020, after the most destructive storm most Iowa residents have ever seen, employees from the City of Cedar Rapids learned to make use of the tools they had.

“Across the city, across different departments, we have very different capabilities, very different equipment,” Cedar Rapids Public Works Director Brenna Fall said in an interview last month. “So, really, it’s getting a few heads together, to understand and recognize what’s the need and what do we have, no matter where it is in the town, and what it’s being used for, at the moment. If it can be used for something different, let’s do it.”

Snow plows were brought out in the middle of August, not to clear snow but to clear trees off roadways. Construction equipment that had previously been working on road projects around the city was put to use gathering storm debris. Firetruck chain saws designed to cut holes in roofs were used to cut trees.

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“How do you prepare for that? I don’t know that you can. There’s no way you could have that amount of equipment staged for an event like that,” Cedar Rapids Police Capt. Charlie Fields said. “The way we respond is a system, and we’re going to follow that system all the way through. We’re going to follow those same steps. Is it going to look always the same? No, but … when we train, we train for what we call all hazards.”

Now, five years later, using equipment in unconventional ways — and using equipment the city didn’t have much of before, like non-firetruck chain saws — is a regular part of training for new firefighters and public works employees.

“The derecho itself has become a part of the city. As new employees come into the city, they hear the stories of us putting the snow plows on and going out and pushing debris out,” Assistant Public Works Director Mike Duffy said. “We’ve done lot of training, and we still do that. We haven’t lost those skills. We have a lot of new employees. A chain saw still is a piece of equipment now that we train on.”

How has emergency response technology advanced since 2020?

Beyond the addition of chain saws and other physical equipment, the city also has improved some of its digital technology tools in response to the 2020 derecho, especially those surrounding record-keeping.

Some of those improvements came from advancements made during the COVID-19 pandemic, as more jobs moved online and people around the world sought new ways to digitize the work they were doing.

“There were things that came out of that, like collection software that would allow us to show, on a dashboard, where we were during an event, how much material we had collected, and be able to document that,” Duffy said.

This technology was advantageous when the city requested funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, since clear and easy documentation of work done plays a big role in determining of how much reimbursement a city can receive.

According to data from the city, Cedar Rapids was eligible for $59.7 million in FEMA reimbursements after the derecho, $53.4 million of which has been reimbursed to date, with $6.3 million still pending.

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“There are apps now that all of our employees can have on their cellphone, or a tablet in the truck, that makes it so fast and easy to document the work that’s done, and then that’s compiled quickly,” Fall said. “The difference between 2008 flood files, and all of the documentation that went into that event, is so different to the 2020 derecho, because of just that technology that we could use to easily document things, take photos, keep it all condensed. It’s all electronic. It’s pretty slick.”

Communication technology also was vastly different during the 2020 derecho than during the 2008 flood. Cedar Rapids Fire Chief Greg Smith said newer technology made it easy for the department to send an automatic call to all off-duty firefighters and other first responders, rather than having to make individual calls to ask employees to help.

“We have an automated system where we can do an emergency call back, and we did have that system before the derecho, but that's technology that continues to evolve,” Smith said.

Smith said the radio system for communication between emergency responders — which is used when cellphone service isn’t available — worked perfectly. That was an improvement from 2008 when the city lost emergency radio capacity.

But 2020 presented a new problem with communication, specifically communicating with civilians about what was happening with the emergency response.

While television news stations continued broadcasting throughout the event and other media posted information online, many people in Cedar Rapids had lost power and cellphone service, so they weren’t able to access that information.

“We now live at an age that, if you don't have your cellphone, you can't connect with society,” Smith said.

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Neighborhood Resource Centers stand ready to help residents

The quick answer to the communication question in 2020 — and the solution the city has now prepared for future disasters — involves less technology and more boots on the ground work. City employees quickly worked to write out and distribute updates the old fashioned way: paper.

“During the derecho, I know the police department had copies to hand out to people. We took them to the Hy-Vees. We took them to the gas stations that we knew were operational,” Smith said. “One of the things that we did was establish the Neighborhood Resource Center concept, and we did that during the derecho, but it was kind of organic at that point. Now it’s more intentional.”

The city established several Neighborhood Resource Centers around Cedar Rapids where people could find information about the current status of the response in the days following the derecho, and that was also where emergency responders handed out supplies like food and water. Now, those resource centers have been established as permanent locations that community members can include in their personal emergency preparedness plans.

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“Know your Neighborhood Resource Centers. If we lose all communications, know that we're going to try to get food, water, information and resources to those Neighborhood Resource Centers as quickly as we can,” Smith said.

There are 10 Neighborhood Resource Centers listed on the city’s website:

Smith said he also encourages community members to have their own emergency plans and emergency kits in place at their homes, including items like a first-aid kit, a weather radio, charged external phone batteries, and other supplies.

‘From a city perspective, we feel like we’re ready’

The biggest lesson Smith said he learned from the 2020 derecho and the response to it was that Cedar Rapids is a city of resilient people, who are ready to jump in and help their neighbors.

“We had a large scale disaster that inundated the city. What was fantastic to see is, as soon as the storm was over and the sun was shining, you heard chain saws running. You had neighbors helping neighbors, and the amount of help and working together that the community did was just fantastic,” Smith said.

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Fall agreed, saying that a lot of the resilience the city saw in 2020 was a result of learning from previous natural disasters the city has faced, like the 2008 flood.

“Now everybody, whether it’s the city or residents or businesses, are better equipped and more resilient for the next thing. We take an event like this, and it can be devastating in a lot of ways, and you learn from it, though, and I do believe we are way stronger each time we have to go through something like that,” Fall said.

“I’d want the community to know that, from a city perspective, we feel like we’re ready, because of past events, because of the training that we go through, because of constant conversations about it. So, I want them to take comfort in that.”

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