“They warned us to take shelter and get in the basement,” said Jason Dubberke, grain division manager of Key Cooperative, which serves more than 1,700 farmers and 10,000 customers in 13 central Iowa communities. “At first, we didn’t believe things were that serious.”

As the storm roared east shortly before noon, it became clear this was no joke. The violent winds and rain blasted Key Cooperative locations from Nevada to Zearing and beyond.

“We kept thinking the storm would lose steam, but it seemed to gain energy as it moved east,” Dubberke said.

Just minutes before the derecho targeted Le Grand, crews were doing a walk-through at a new 400,000-bushel grain bin that had been completed one hour earlier.

-Submitted photo
Just moments before the derecho hit Key Cooperative’s Le Grand location, crews were performing a walk-through of their new 400,000 bushel grain bin that was just completed. The storm blew the new bin off of its concrete pad.

“Then the storm hit and completely ripped the new bin off the concrete pad,” Dubberke said. “We were fortunate nobody was hurt.”

When Key employees from Zearing called Key’s office in Nevada, they reported that the storm completely leveled the Zearing location.

“It almost brought down the grain-drying towers on the office,” said Dubberke, adding that the only thing left was the overhead equipment for loading trucks. “It shocked us, to say the least.”

After the derecho plowed through Iowa into Illinois, Key Cooperative would never look the same.

“The storm damaged 10 of our 15 grain locations,” Dubberke said. “Out of our 30 million bushels of licensed grain storage, 40 bins were damaged.”

-Submitted photo
Clearing of debris and rebuilding started practically immediately after damage was assessed at Key Cooperative’s location in Le Grand.

That represents about 12 million bushels of space. About 20 of those bins were completely demolished, representing roughly 6 million bushels of space. The storm also derailed many construction projects. Key Cooperative was in the process of adding about 3.5 million bushels of space throughout the company.

Instead of preparing to handle a bumper crop, the Key team switched gears immediately in the wake of the derecho. They brought in another 3 million bushels of emergency bunker storage placed strategically at various locations. Managers also launched a thorough assessment of the damage and formed a disaster recovery task force.

“It took a team effort, with multiple meetings seven days a week,” Dubberke said. “Sometimes we had to make some ‘Band-Aid repairs’ just to get things running again, but we were able to receive grain at every Key location during harvest.”

Since storm damage wiped out field after field in some areas, there were fewer bushels to handle in Key’s trade territory. “Our area had decent weather at harvest, fortunately, so that made it a little easier to put away this crop,” Dubberke said.

Assessing a once-in-a-decade storm

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Clearing of debris and rebuilding started practically immediately after damage was assessed at Key Cooperative’s location in Nevada.

Derechos may not be as well-known as hurricanes or tornadoes, but these rare storms can be just as powerful and destructive.

During the Aug. 10 derecho, maximum estimates were around 140 miles per hour in areas like Cedar Rapids, according to the National Weather Service. The maximum measured unofficial wind gust was 126 mph at Atkins, Iowa. Two tornadoes were also confirmed within the widespread swath of wind damage.

By the time it was over, the derecho had tracked 770 miles from South Dakota to western Ohio and lower Michigan during a span of 14 hours, according to The Weather Channel.

“A derecho of this intensity is a roughly once-in-a-decade occurrence in this region,” the NWS added. “What is unique about this event, making it even more extreme, is the long duration of the high winds. Many locations experienced sustained high winds and damaging gusts for 30 to 60 minutes, compared to 10 to 20 minutes, which is more common for derechos.”

Investing in the future

-Submitted photo
Key Cooperative’s Zearing location was completely destroyed by the derecho on Aug. 10.

Since Key Cooperative already had several millwright companies working on site prior to the derecho, cleanup began within hours of the storm at some locations. Key’s managers also immersed themselves in plans to repair, rebuild and redesign various locations. “We’re essentially rebuilding about 40 percent of our facilities,” Dubberke said. “We want to rebuild them right for the future.”

Sometimes that means upgrading facilities for improved grain-handling speed and storage capacity, including dual receiving grain legs. “We want to make our locations faster for a better customer experience for our members,” Dubberke said. “We also want these upgrades to be useful for 20-plus years.”

Favorable fall weather allowed crews to complete soil correction work by the end of 2020 at Key’s locations in Kelley, Zearing, Nevada and Le Grande. This will create a big advantage when construction work commences this spring.

Repairs and rebuilds at all of Key’s derecho-damaged locations are slated for completion by harvest 2021.

“The silver lining of the storm is that we can rebuild better,” Dubberke said. “We’re grateful that our members have been so supportive of the co-op through all this.”