10 million acres of corn, soybeans flattened; farmers 'have never seen anything like this

Desmoines August, 2020 

In less than an hour, the nearly 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans that Corey Hillebo and his family farm near Slater were flattened.

"Nothing in the path of the storm was unscathed," said Hillebo, who lives near where Monday's derecho, packing hurricane-force winds, left Heartland Cooperative's massive grain storage bins twisted and crumpled.

"You drive around, there's nothing that's not leaning or flat," he said.

Across Iowa, the storm hit about 10 million acres of crops, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday during a news conference. The Iowa Department of Agriculture said the storm affected roughly a third of the state, which grows about 32 million acres of corn, soybeans and other crops.

Reynolds said farmers have told her the damage "has just been devastating ... they have never seen anything like this."

The storm, with straight-line winds nearing 100 mph, pummeled homes, farms and businesses across dozens of counties in central Iowa. In addition to crops, it destroyed grain bins, machine sheds, barns and livestock buildings.