Anti-mask protesters inside the rotunda of the Iowa Capitol in
Des Moines on Jan. 11, 2021. Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer (at
left, in suit) with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (in jeans). The governor
didn’t issue a mask mandate until late in 2020.86 FORTUNE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021
landscape were reflecting their whole year’s experience
back at them.The derecho wreaked havoc everywhere
it hit. In Madrid (pronounced MAD-rid), 30 miles north
of Des Moines, the storm peeled the roof off the four-floor
Madrid Home, a senior living center, where six coronavirus
patients were in isolation and receiving treatment on the
facility’s top floor. Kris Hansen, CEO of Western Home
Communities, which runs the site, was in a virtual meeting
when he got the panicked call from his executive director
in Madrid.
For Hansen, who was an hour to the northeast, in a part
of the state where skies were still clear, it was an unthink-
able twist. With 10 senior-living communities in the state
of Iowa, the pandemic had been a real test for Western
Home—for all the reasons familiar to long-term-care
facilities across the country (a lack of PPE, a shortage of
workers), and for reasons more specific to Iowa.
“I got frustrated with the governor a few times for not
coming out stronger with a mask mandate,” he says, add-
ing that it felt like the state had chosen the economy over
protecting seniors. “Why would we put anybody at risk ifAs climatologist Glisan told me, it’s difficult to link
a single extreme weather event to climate change. But
there’s plenty of subtle evidence that Iowa’s weather is
changing and increasing the odds of damaging storms like
the derecho. Much of Glisan’s job is helping farmers adapt
to that reality—like preparing for more frequent heavy
rainfall. (The probability of receiving more than three
inches of rain in a 24-hour period in Iowa has tripled over
the historical rate in the past 30 years.)
In the 2020 Iowa Farm and Rural Life poll, 81% of
farmers said they believe climate change is occurring, up
from 68% in 2011. That’s a much greater percentage than
across Iowa’s general public, of whom 67% believe global
warming is happening. (The rate is 72% nationally.)
I didn’t get to speak much to my parents during the 10
days they were in the dark, dealing with the derecho. Most
attempts to call were met with understandable frustration
about draining their phone battery. I know it was tough
on them. My mom is still sometimes moved to tears when
she talks about the volunteers—friends, family, and total
strangers—who came with their chain saws to help them
out. My family was lucky in that the trees that fell on their
houses did not cause significant damage. My parents got a
new roof, which was covered by insurance; my brother will
get one in the spring.
I got the sense from them and others in Cedar Rapids,
and I felt it myself when I visited in December, that one
of the hardest things post-derecho was inhabiting a world
of such obvious and inescapable physical loss, as if the FROM LEFT: KELSEY KREMER—THE REGISTER/USA TODAY NETWORK/REUTERS; OLIVIA SUN—THE REGISTER/USA TODAY NETWORK/REUTERS