A Haiku Prayer for Cedar Rapids After the Storm

More than a week week since the derecho hit Cedar Rapids Iowa. Some of those folks still don’t have power.

That crazy strong straight line wind blasted through indiscriminately, leaving every neighborhood battered, shattered, broken.

derecho cloud over cedar rapids august 2020

A derecho (pronounced deh-REY-cho) is a widespread, long-lived wind storm associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms variously known as a squall line, bow echo, or quasi-linear convective system. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to that of a tornado, the damage typically occurs in one direction along a relatively straight swath. As a result, the term “straight-line wind damage” sometimes is used to describe derecho damage.