After Two Years, Benton County Farm Starts Derecho Cleanup
The derecho two years ago devastated many families in the area causing unimagined damage. One family has been forced to live with the damage as they fought lawsuits with their insurance company.
Now, almost two years later, Jodi and John Phillip are able to move on from the 2020 derecho.
2-Jo’s Farm is just west of Cedar Rapids. After the derecho hit in August 2020, their insurer claimed that damages from the derecho were significantly less than the total cost of the damages the Philipps’s reported.
Now that the lawsuit has been settled, they have been able to go through the wreckage of the indoor riding arenas they had on the property and see what if anything is salvageable. However, from both the derecho and being exposed to the elements, almost nothing was salvageable.
Of these items, says The Gazette, were antiques that were kept on the farm, family heirlooms in the house, and memories.
Jodi tells the Gazette that if the insurance company had done something after the storm hit, they might have gotten more out of the wreckage.
It breaks your heart because it didn’t have to sit like this for two years. We could have saved stuff if I could have come in here.
Cleanup on the farm began on April 23rd.