Most city governments were working to restore normalcy
in August 2020 as leaders addressed COVID-related civic, retail, and school shutdowns. In the middle of this effort, Clinton, Iowa, was struck by a second crisis—a particularly brutal wind storm, called a derecho, that behaves as an inland hurricane and devastated the city that month. These types of storms are rare in the region, and this storm struck Clinton with 80-plus mile-per-hour winds that left 80 percent of residents without power and interrupted cell-tower signals and utilities, destroyed homes, and blocked streets with damage. The derecho created a new crisis on top of an existing one.