Kasey Dresser | September 12, 2018

On July 19th of this year, Marshalltown, IA was hit with a devastating tornado. 89 homes were destroyed and 525 sustained major damage. The  tornado struck a low income part of town making it very difficult for the small town to bounce back. Many people in the area had little to no insurance.

Lennox and JBS Swift & Co., the two largest employers have made sizable donations to help rebuild property. With disaster relief help, several employers have been able to continue to provide health insurance to their employees despite no longer having jobs for them. However, the process is slow and there are many people in the town still living in destroyed homes despite the tornado occurring months ago. Marshall County Family Long Term Recovery Committee is currently going door to door to evaluate which homes can still be lived in long term. Greg Smith, chairman of the Iowa Disaster Human Resource Council, stated, “It is not unusual for the poorest of the community to become poorer after a disaster.”

There is also large concern from business owners they may not have the insurance money to rebuild their company. It is a city requirement to use the original materials instead of replacing it with something cheaper, like wood. The collapse of these business will leave many people unemployed.

Even after the physical damage is cleared away Marshalltown will likely face a difficult couple years. Jim Zaleski, the city’s economic development director and tourism marketer, has helped with tornado relief in other towns. He believes,” the tornado was a catalyst, ” and will “force the community to take some hard looks at what was going to happen over the next decade.”