STEPHANIE SY: Iowa is still just beginning to recover from one of the worst windstorms
to hit the state and several others in the Midwest.
As John Yang tells us, more attention and help is starting to come to the Hawkeye State,
but many homeowners, farmers and businesses have taken a devastating hit.
JOHN YANG: A full week after a powerful storm barreled through the Midwest with hurricane-force
winds, many in the hardest-hit state of Iowa are still reeling.
The straight-line windstorm, known as a derecho, claimed at least three lives in Iowa and severely
damaged or destroyed roughly 8,200 homes.
KELLY MCMAHON, Volunteer: It feels like I'm in a Third World nation. Like, this, to me,
seems as if it's our version of Katrina, minus the deaths.
JOHN YANG: Kelly McMahon volunteered to help out after the storm ripped through a Cedar
Rapids apartment complex that was home to refugees from African and Pacific island nations.
KELLY MCMAHON: This is people living in apartments with no roofs, no front walls, the fronts
of the patios off, wires just hanging down. Where in the world is our government helping
us out?
JOHN YANG: Most don't speak English, complicating their efforts to get help.
WOMAN: We have people who don't have houses. And we're not talking about one, two, three.
We're talking about hundreds of families that will probably be sleeping in their cars.
JOHN YANG: Cedar Rapids' City Manager Jeff Pomeranz defended the city's response.
JEFF POMERANZ, City Manager, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: This is an unprecedented disaster that's
affected our entire community, lots of people impacted. Some of the residents who have been
displaced, we have got council members working around the clock trying to make sure those
residents have a place to go.
JOHN YANG: The storm toppled scores of trees, taking down power lines and cutting electricity
to hundreds of thousands of homes across Iowa. Tens of thousands were still in the dark today.
Millions of acres of Iowa farmland were flattened, with corn and soybean crops hit the hardest.
Before leaving the White House this morning, President Trump approved Iowa officials' request
for nearly $4 billion in federal disaster aid.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: We approved the emergency declaration for
Iowa, so they're in very good shape. They're working as we speak. Also, FEMA is in Iowa
now full force and helping them greatly.
JOHN YANG: About 100 Iowa National Guard troops are clearing debris from downed power lines,
as electricity is restored to residents who've been without it for a week.
White House officials say President Trump is likely to go to Iowa tomorrow to see the
damage.
Beth Malicki is an anchor at KCRG-TV9 in Cedar Rapids. And she joins us now.
Beth, thanks so much for being with us.
BETH MALICKI, KCRG: Sure. Thank you.
JOHN YANG: As you move around the community, as you report this story, the recovery from
this storm, what do you hear, what are people telling you is their biggest need right now?
BETH MALICKI: Humanitarian aid, the basics, shelter, food, water, ice to keep insulin
cold. They're not asking for new bridges, new roads, rebuild everything. Those things
will come at some point, but, right now, this is a humanitarian crisis.
JOHN YANG: And you say they need the basics. It's been a week, as we said in the taped
piece, since this all happened. How are people reacting to the pace of aid, or lack of aid?
BETH MALICKI: They're outraged. That's an understatement. They're tearful.
They're -- you know, Iowans don't like to rely on others. They like to be independent.
But this is so overwhelming and it's so widespread. And there seems to just be this lack of urgency
in covering it -- you being the exception, thank you -- and getting things in place.
It's so desperate that people from nearby communities that weren't as hard-hit are coming
in and going door to door to check on people. We have found people who have been stuck in
their homes, a man in his wheelchair, an elderly couple in their 90s.
That's not our job as media. We really just shine a light. We're not supposed to be emergency
responders or really advocates of anything but the truth.
JOHN YANG: Earlier, in a news conference today with city officials, you said that people
at FEMA, some government officials are calling your newsroom to try to figure out where help
is needed.
BETH MALICKI: That happened last night.
They couldn't get through to anybody at the city to find these people and give them help.
These folks were living outside in makeshift tents. And some of them are still living inside
their homes that were missing roofs and walls with exposed wires -- there's no power coming
in anyway -- and nails and children.
And this is a community in this particular apartment complex that is predominantly people
who came here as refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, from Micronesia. And these
people need translators. They're terrified. They don't even -- they don't know where to
go to get help, whereas somebody like me -- and I have storm damage, but that doesn't matter
-- but I know how to connect.
These folks are living in imagery that is -- it's unimaginable to be happening in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, in the United States of America.
JOHN YANG: You say that people are outraged over the pace of the relief.
Who is the target of the outrage? Who are they taking this out on? Who are they angry
at?
BETH MALICKI: It's really at the decision-makers, who they feel did not move quickly and effectively
enough at all levels.
JOHN YANG: Local, state, federal?
BETH MALICKI: Yes, all of the above.
JOHN YANG: Farming, of course, such an important industry in Iowa. How have they been affected
by this storm?
BETH MALICKI: Some farmers have been flat-out wiped out. We're talking 10 million acres
of farmland that is damaged or destroyed, as well as corn cribs and silos that were
holding corn.
That just -- they blew over, and the corn spilled out. Now, they can pick up some of
the corn, but that is nothing compared to what was in the land. That cannot be redeemed.
JOHN YANG: Iowa, of course, is not immune to weather problems. And you have had big
flooding problems. How is this, the reaction and the recovery, pace of recovery, and response
to this, compared to previous natural disasters?
BETH MALICKI: I was here in the flood of 2008.
And, at the time, it was so overwhelming. You're hearing some repeating themes here.
But we led the national news that night, and we were in the spotlight. And people were
reaching out. And we had trucks and trucks of support from the nonprofit side. And they're
here, too. But it took a long time for those national agencies to even notice this was
happening.
It's not that they didn't care. They didn't know. Also, with the flood, you have a little
bit of lead time. In 2008, the water started rising, things were problematic, and they
peaked about five days later.
This derecho, we had two hours' warning, two hours. A man died in Iowa because he was riding
his bike and a tree fell on him. We have a child who's 8 years old in intensive care
because, immediately following, her dad was trying to remove trees, and she was crushed
by one.
We were so not ready. And that isn't our fault. There's no warning system that exists for
this kind of storm.
JOHN YANG: A very difficult situation. Thanks for giving us -- filling us in on the details,
Beth Malicki at KCRG-TV9 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Thanks, Beth.
BETH MALICKI: Thank you, John.
STEPHANIE SY: Iowans desperate for attention and help.