The Gazette Daily News Podcast

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, Aug. 21.

Friday’s weather looks to be sunny, and a bit hot. According to the National Weather Service, there should be a high of 88 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area during the day, with a light wind. At night, it should be clear, with a low temperature around 60 degrees.

Homeowners, renters and merchants in Linn County can now apply for federal disaster aid to help them recover from the Aug. 10 derecho.

On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump partially approved the state’s request for individual assistance under a Federal Emergency Management Agency program — but damage assessments in the 26 other Iowa counties under consideration are ongoing, and residents in those counties must wait for federal aid.

The FEMA program provides homeowners and renters impacted by the storm with resources, including assistance with housing, personal property replacement, medical expenses and legal services. However, it does not duplicate what insurance covers.

As of Thursday evening, more than 10,000 households in Linn County were still without electricity as a result of the storm.

The Cedar Rapids Community School District and 13 other districts struck by last week’s derecho expect a new proclamation from Gov. Kim Reynolds allowing them to start the school year online instead of in damaged facilities.

Reynolds announced Thursday she is updating a public health emergency proclamation addressing school districts affected by storm damage.

Cedar School Superintendent Noreen Bush told parents Thursday that a new school date will be announced soon.

As a growing number of universities nationally cancel plans for in-person learning this semester amid reports of COVID-19 outbreaks and student partying off campus, the University of Iowa has announced that three-fourths of its undergraduate credit hours this fall will be delivered online.

The fact that 72 percent of undergraduate hours will be taught virtually is the result of the campus’ COVID-19 plan to move every class with 50 or more students online, plus accommodations it made for teachers and students in smaller classes who requested alternatives.

Iowa’s coronavirus deaths reach 1,016 by the end of the day Thursday. Iowa’s number of individuals hospitalized with the disease increased to 300, the first time it has gotten that high since mid June, when the numbers finally started to reduce after a peak of cases in mid May.

At least 59 inmates at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the facility to suspend intake of new inmates.

The facility has run 800 tests in the past week, with 59 inmates testing positive for the virus, Iowa Department of Corrections officials confirmed Wednesday. Testing is continuing, and it’s likely additional inmates will be identified and placed into medical isolation.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, Aug. 20.

Thursday’s weather forecast looks to be a repeat of the sunny, uneventful weather we have seen for much of this week. According to the National Weather Service, there should be a high of 87 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area Thursday, with wind speeds as high as 5 to 10 mph. Thursday night it should be mostly clear, with a low of around 58 degrees.

More than a week after the devastation wrought by the derecho, more than 21,000 Alliant Energy customers in Linn County were still without power heading into Wednesday night.

21,568 of Alliant’s 97,603 Linn County customers were without power as of 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Although the progress has been slow for those suffering without electricity, this is a marked improvement from the more than 100,000 Iowans who were left without electricity for much of last week.

Gusts from the Aug. 10 derecho storm were even stronger than initially thought and reached 140 mph in southwest Cedar Rapids, the National Weather Service said Wednesday in releasing revised estimates. The weather service said damage the storm caused in parts of Benton, Linn, Jones, Cedar, and Clinton counties was consistent with straight-line winds gusting into the 100 to 130 mph range. But the maximum estimated winds were about 140 mph, the weather service said, which caused severe damage to an apartment complex in southwest Cedar Rapids. This is equivalent of wind speeds seen in an EF3 tornado.

On the day the state surpassed 1,000 deaths related to COVID-19, Iowa’s top public health official Wednesday deflected a question about whether stricter measures are needed to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in the state. In an interview with The Gazette, Dr. Caitlin Pedati would not say whether she believes state officials should mandate certain mitigation policies. She instead pointed to the responsibility of all Iowans to wear masks and maintaining social distance, among other personal efforts.

After recent news reports called into question the accuracy of databases meant to help the public track the spread of COVID-19 across the state, Pedati defended the system while emphasizing the commitment of state agencies to continue improving during the pandemic and beyond.

The Iowa City Community School District and a statewide public educators union filed suit Wednesday against Gov. Kim Reynolds’ administration over a state requirement that schools conduct a majority of instruction in-person during the upcoming school year amid the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit, which the https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/education/iowa-city-school-district-iowa-state-education-association-suing-iowa-governor-kim-reynolds-office-return-to-learn-ruling-20200818 (Iowa City school board voted Tuesday night to join,) was filed in Johnson County District Court.

The lawsuit argues the governor has exceeded her authority — that local school boards have primary authority over their education plans.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 19.

Another calm and pleasant weather day is on tap Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service, it should be sunny in the Cedar Rapids area with a high near 84 degrees, with a low of 58 degrees Wednesday night.

President Donald Trump stopped at the Eastern Iowa Airport on his way to a rally in Arizona Tuesday to speak with local leaders about the damage from last week’s derecho. President Trump told the assembled mayors and other officials, who asked for assistance during the brief meeting, that the federal government would be there for Iowans. Trump on Monday assented to Gov. Kim Reynold’s request to declare a major disaster, but only $45 million of the $4 billion in requested federal aid has been approved at this time by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal channels.

Through Tuesday more than 40,000 customers of Alliant and Linn County REC were listed as being without power in Linn County, as workers summoned from all over the country work feverishly to erect power lines to replace those downed by the storm.

The Iowa City School District plans to join in a lawsuit against the Iowa Governor’s Office challenging its interpretation of state law and preventing districts, that had planned to go online only to start the year, from doing so. The suit was initiated by the Iowa State Education Association teachers union, who invited other districts to join on. The Iowa City School Board voted unanimously on Tuesday night to join on to the lawsuit.

In the final three days of Iowa State’s weekslong process to move more than 8,000 students into its 18 residence halls, the university found another 34 students with COVID-19 — meaning a total of 175 ISU students started the term in mandatory isolation, with their close contacts in quarantine.

Iowa State — the only of Iowa’s three public universities that made students get tested before moving into its residence halls — performed a total of 8,094 tests, returning a 2.2 percent positivity rate.

Iowa’s total deaths from COVID-19 eclipsed the 1,000 mark Tuesday, with 1,002 lives having been claimed by the disease so far according to state data. Hospitalizations from the disease are continuing to increase, from 283 to 287, while intensive-care unit patients are also up, from 85 to 86, and patients on ventilators are up as well, from 33 to 35.

Iowa’s Democratic attorney general Tom Miller says he was rebuffed by Gov. Reynolds in his request to join a multistate lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service. He expressed his solidarity with the effort to challenge the Trump administration’s recent changes at the postal service, but will abide by her decision.

This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 18, 2020.

Today will be Sunny, with a high near 81 and it should cool off to around 57 tonight. Expect more of the same tomorrow

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-derecho-storm-power-outage-cedar-rapids-alliant-20200817 (90% of Alliant customers to have power by end of the day today). Last night, over 42,000 residents in Linn and Johnson counties were still without power. During Kim Reynolds’ news conference yesterday, Terry Kouba, senior vice president of utility operations at Alliant said, the company is doing everything possible to restore service to 90 percent of its customers by the end of the day Tuesday. Kouba said Alliant is replacing 2,500 downed poles from the storm — a job typically done in eight months for the company — in a matter of weeks.

Mediacom customers can expect to have internet service within a day — if not faster than that — after electricity comes back, but ImOn has significant damage to its infrastructure, and they say an estimate for individual customers is “impossible.”

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-storm-derecho-donald-trump-kim-reynolds-emergency-declaration-20200817 (Donald Trump signs Iowa derecho disaster declaration). The declaration comes as a response to a request made for at least $4 billion in federal aid to deal with property and crop damage caused by last week’s derecho. Under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Individual Assistance Program, the president said he approved assistance for 27 Iowa counties. Individual Assistance Program funding provides disaster-impacted homeowners and businesses with programs and services to maximize recovery, including assistance with housing, personal property replacement, medical expenses and legal services.

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-derecho-storm-president-donald-trump-visit-cedar-rapids-disaster-declaration-20200817 (Following his disaster declaration, Trump will visit Cedar Rapids today). Trump will meet with Gov. Reynolds to discuss efforts for responding to the derecho and he will also meet with state and local officials, along with Iowans affected by the storm. Full details of the visit have not been disclosed.

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-derecho-storm-tree-debris-cedar-rapids-mulch-20200817 (It may go without saying, but expect a lot of mulch in Cedar Rapids over the coming months). Disposing of the tree debris that has buried much of Cedar Rapids since last week’s destructive derecho storm likely will take “until winter,” according to a city official, and much of it will be made into mulch. The city opened a public collection site at F Avenue and First Street NW, and the massive pile of branches, sticks and leaves at the site was the size of two Olympic-sized pools by Sunday morning. The site is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m, and thanks to a steady stream of pickups and trailers over 1,000 loads were already dropped off over the weekend. Residents can bring tree debris there, but not household garbage, such as shingles and siding.

The Gazette Daily news updates are brought to you in part by Corridor Careers. "Are you looking for a job? CorridorCareers.com is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at CorridorCareers.com."

That’s it for today’s update. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply activating your Alexa device and asking “what’s the news?”

This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk and I’m here with your update for Monday, August 17, 2020.

Today sees a slight chance of rain before noon, but then it should get sunnier and creep up to 83 in the afternoon. Every day this week is projected to be sunny with highs in the mid 80s.

Governor Kim Reynolds is requesting a expedited federal disaster declaration. Yesterday, Reynolds requested speedier response of federal aid for Iowa counties impacted by the derecho, estimating the state needs nearly $4 billion in relief to get back on track. Reynolds already made a state disaster declaration, but now she’s attempting to expedite aid from the federal level, a request she says is unusual to see approved within days, but something that is sorely needed in many Iowa counties.

50,000 still without power in Linn and Johnson counties. As of 11 a.m. yesterday, 48,718 of Alliant’s 97,603 Linn County customers were without power, and 287 of Alliant’s 9,827 Johnson County customers also had no power. Alliant says the majority of its customers should have power back by Tuesday as crews continued to work furiously to replace lines and bring substations back online. Many businesses providing essential services, including grocery stores and gas stations, have their power back. Public facilities, including Cedar Rapids City Hall, police and fire departments, the Public Works facility, water plants and The Eastern Iowa Airport have power as well.

Cedar Rapids lost half its tree canopy in derecho. According to Todd Fagan, Cedar Rapids city arborist, the city’s municipal tree population has a structural value of $112 million. He has estimated about half its tree canopy is gone after last Monday’s storm. In coming weeks and months, the city will document each damaged or fallen tree in its inventory to determine total loss and figure out how to replant. He says “It’s definitely the most devastating thing [he’s] ever seen.” Once recovery is complete, it’ll be time to start planting again, but it’ll be years before the new growth reaches pre-storm levels.

Free food, drink, ice, and other resources are available all around Cedar Rapids. Operation BBQ Relief will be serving 500 meals at the following sites every day for the next week from noon to 2 p.m and from 5-7 p.m at the following locations.

-Downtown Public Library (450 5th Avenue SE)

-Ladd Library (3750 Williams Blvd SW)

-NW Recreation Center (1340 11th Street NW)

-Jane Boyd Community House (943 14th Ave SE)

-Taylor Elementary School (720 7th Avenue SW)

-Roosevelt Middle School (300 13th Street NW)

-Grant Elementary School (254 Outlook Drive SW)

-Johnson STEAM Academy (355 18th Street SE)

-Nixon Elementary School (200 Nixon Drive, Hiawatha)

-Jefferson School (1243 20th Street SW)

-Polk Alternative Education Center (1500 B Avenue NE)

The Gazette Daily news updates are brought to you in part by Corridor Careers. "Are you looking for a job? CorridorCareers.com is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at CorridorCareers.com."

That’s it for today’s update. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply activating your Alexa device and asking “what’s the news?”

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I’m here with your update for the weekend of August 15th and August 16th.

After some potential storms that should clear out early Saturday morning, your weekend weather looks cooler and calmer than it has been this week. According to the National Weather Service, there will be a high of 79 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area Saturday with mostly cloudy skies. Sunday will see the return of sun and heat, with clear skies and a high of 87 degrees.

Friday was another day of heat, difficulty, and no electricity for most of the residents of Linn County in the wake of Monday’s storm. About 65 percent of Linn County residents were still out of power Friday afternoon as utility crews looked to work to repair https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-storm-derecho-cedar-rapids-power-outage-alliant-energy-20200813 (the worst storm damage they say they’ve ever seen).

Alliant Energy senior vice president Terry Kouba said in a Friday news release a “significant number of customers” will have power by the end of the day Tuesday, if not sooner. As of Friday night, about 65,000 Alliant customers in Linn County still do not have power.

Linn County Rural Electric Cooperative expects “a substantial increase in power restoration” over the weekend and into Monday. About 8,000 Linn County REC customers in the county did not have power and another 1,700 of their customers in Johnson County were also cut off.

With the lack of both power and Internet, as well as damage to several district buildings, the Cedar Rapids School District is seeking permission from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to begin its school year online. Cedar Rapids Superintendent Noreen Bush told the governor during a visit surveying the damage Friday that the district is already prepare for online schooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bush said there could be the potential for elementary school students to go back sooner, as their buildings were, on the whole, less damaged.

After a sweep of the city by Cedar Rapids firefighters, 1,089 housing units in the city have been placarded as being too damaged to occupy. Fire Chief Greg Smith said firefighters did an initial sweep of the city to determine whether roofs, ceilings, walls or floors were in danger of collapse and posed a significant risk to those living there, especially if a fire breaks out.

Another 320 properties have sustained minor non-structural damage and 217 had cosmetic damage, according to public safety spokesman Greg Buelow.

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig Friday that Monday’s storm greatly impacted roughly 3.57 million acres of corn and 2.5 million acres of soybeans. Naig noted that although much of this cropland is insured, this is a particularly hard hitting blow for farmers that have already been struggling to recover from a trade dispute with China and the COVID-19 pandemic as harvest time is rapidly approaching.

Deaths from COVID-19 reached 972 by the end of the day Friday, with positive cases increasing every day of the week.

We are keeping a running list of resources for those who either want to help those affected by the storm or those who need help on thegazette.com.

If you are listening to this, you made it through one big struggle of a week. If you can manage it, treat yourself to whatever relief you can find this weekend. We’ll continue recovering together, one day at a time.

This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk and I’m here with your update for Friday, August 14, 2020.

Today will be Mostly sunny, with a high near 88 and a chance of showers tonight and Saturday, but it should be clear after that going into next week.

The number of coronavirus cases in Iowa rose yesterday to 50,167 total cases, and the total deaths attributed to coronavirus stand at 954

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/health/iowa-coronavirus-numbers-tests-hospitalizations-august-high-20200813 (Coronavirus hospitalizations have hit at 3-month high in Linn County). The number of people in Iowa intensive care units is up from 57 to 88 in the past three days — the highest number in several months. Some of the hospitalizations may be out of caution as some Iowans being treated for COVID-19 in long-term care facilities or at home may be transferred to a hospital for temporary treatment after their place of residence was damaged in the derecho storm blew through Iowa Monday afternoon.

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-storm-derecho-medical-device-charging-stations-20200813 (Multiple stations around Cedar rapids and Linn County enable the charging of medical devices). The following locations are open for residents who need a place to go to charge medical equipment. It should be noted, medical supplies are not available at these locations.

Cedar Rapids

Medical equipment charging stations will be available daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at these locations:

Downtown library, Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street SE (parking lot)

Twin Pines Golf Course parking lot, 3800 42nd Street NE

Northwest Recreation Center parking lot, 1340 11th Street NW

Transit services are anticipated to be available again on Monday. Residents can call 2-1-1 if they need assistance.

Linn County

These sites are open for residents who need a place to charge medical equipment or need a day shelter.

Anderson Public Library, 720 Main St., Center Point, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays (only outlets with red-covered plates have power)

Hiawatha Community Center, 101 Emmons St., Hiawatha, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays

Palo Community Center, 2800 Hollenbeck Rd., Palo, 24 hours a day in conjunction with the Red Cross

Robins Community Center, 265 S. Second St., Robins; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays

Springville City Hall, 304 Broadway St., Springville, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays

Coggon Old Fire Station, 112 Second St. S., 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays (no air conditioning).

Walford City Hall, 120 Fifth St. N. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. For after-hours access, call Walford City Hall at 319-846-3103.

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/iowa-storm-derecho-cedar-rapids-power-outage-alliant-energy-20200813 (It may be 5 to 7 days before power is restored to most of Cedar Rapids). About 75 percent of all electric utilities in Linn County were without power last night. Alliant is not the only utility experiencing challenges restoring power. A Linn County REC spokeswoman said the utility has never experienced storm damage as devastating as the derecho, with more than 200 poles and 75 miles of lines saw damage, saying “It’s everywhere,” Langridge said. “It’s not one localized section. The whole system is out.”

In the meantime, utilities have asked customers to stay away from downed power lines, noting the risk of life-threatening injuries or further delays in restoring the electric grid.

https://www.thegazette.com/news.iowa-storm-derecho-food-distribution-cedar-rapids-linn-county-where-to-get-food (Food and water are being distributed in Cedar Rapids). Hy-Vee semi-trailers and the Hy-Vee Healthy You Mobile will be in the Cedar Rapids area on Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. providing beverages and snacks as it navigates Cedar Rapids area neighborhoods. It will also be making stops throughout neighborhoods allowing residents without power to charge devices.

Stops include:

• 11 a.m.: Oakhill Jackson neighborhood

• 1 p.m.: Taylor...

This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk and I’m here with your update for Thursday, August 13, 2020.

Today will be partly sunny with a high near 86. It’ll cool off to 65 tonight. The national weather service originally forecast a chance of thunderstorms for most of the second half of the week, but that projection has gotten less and less, and now it’s just a 20% chance tonight and a 30% chance on saturday.

The number of coronavirus cases in Iowa rose yesterday to 49,702 total cases, and the total deaths attributed to coronavirus stand at 949.

Test Iowa sites reopened yesterday after recovering from storm damage. sites in Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Marshalltown reopened for testing between 1 to 6 p.m. Wednesday. Regular testing hours, which are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., will resume Thursday.

These Test Iowa locations sustained severe damage due to weather conditions across the state this week, forcing the sites to close.

State officials announced that Test Iowa will honor appointments for those who scheduled tests at the impacted sites earlier this week. They are not required to reschedule their appointments.

Iowa long-term care facilities are seeing repeat coronavirus outbreaks. A couple of Iowa long-term care facilities are experiencing second outbreaks of COVID-19.

The Iowa Veterans Home in Marshall County reappeared on the state’s long-term care facility outbreak list after being removed from the list on June 12. The facility has nine cases of COVID-19. Calvin Community in Polk County has also reappeared on the list with three cases. They were previously removed from the list by June 25.

New to the outbreak list is Good Samaritan Society in Winnebago County, which has five cases. Solon Nursing Care Center had one new recovery with 15 total recovered.

You can find this and the rest of our coronavirus coverage at our dedicated coronavirus page, TheGazette.com/coronavirus.

Utilities make progress on restoring power. As swaths of Eastern Iowa — including downtown Cedar Rapids — have blinked back to life, tens of thousands of electric utility customers in Linn and Johnson counties remained in the dark Wednesday evening.

In a Wednesday afternoon statement, Alliant said power had been restored for close to 75,000 customers with most living in Williamsburg, Marengo and Jefferson. Power also was restored for a section of northeast Cedar Rapids.

Cedar Rapids hospitals resume normal operations while area clinics remain without power. Hospitals in the Corridor were beginning to resume normal operations on Wednesday after this week’s storm, but the widespread damage likely will keep area clinics from resuming services in the coming days.

With the power restored to both Cedar Rapids hospitals by Wednesday afternoon, officials with Mercy Medical Center and UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital said they would resume elective surgeries and other services that temporarily were unavailable as a result of the storm.

The hospitals were relying on backup generators earlier this week to manage critical and emergency patient care after the storm caused serious damage to the city’s power grid. In Iowa City, the main campus at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics did not lose power. Officials said some generators were started and put into use as a precautionary measure.

The Gazette Daily news updates are brought to you in part by Corridor Careers. "Are you looking for a job? CorridorCareers.com is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at CorridorCareers.com."

That’s it for today’s update. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply activating your Alexa device and asking “what’s the news?”

This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk and I’m here with your update for Wednesday, August 12, 2020.

Today will be sunny with a high near 86. It’ll cool off to 64 tonight. Chances of thunderstorms persist for the rest of the week.

The number of coronavirus cases in Iowa rose yesterday to 49,203 total cases, and the total deaths attributed to coronavirus stand at 937.

Hospitalizations for coronavirus jumped by 20 yesterday after a slow decline, but Iowa officials say that’s likely due to a number of patients being transferred to hospitals for temporary care after losing power at their home or a long term care facility.

You can find this and the rest of our coronavirus coverage at our dedicated coronavirus page, TheGazette.com/coronavirus.

Gov. Reynolds issues disaster proclamation for 20 counties. Iowa sustained “significant” infrastructure, financial and crop damage as hurricane-like storms devastated much of the state Monday, prompting Gov. Kim Reynolds to declare at least 20 counties as state disaster areas with expectations federal aid also will be requested as crews work to restore power to an estimated 450,000 households.

Reynolds said she’d be shocked if Iowa doesn’t meet and exceed the federal threshold to qualify for a presidential disaster declaration. The governor’s proclamation allows state resources to be utilized to respond to and recover from the effects of this severe weather in the affected counties.

It may be 'several days' till power is restored in Eastern Iowa. As of Tuesday at 4 p.m., almost all of Alliant Energy’s customers in Linn and Johnson counties still were without power. A spokesman said it "may be several days" before power is fully restored in Iowa. "Dozens of crews" are coming from other companies to help MidAmerican restore power, starting with areas of "critical need."

Electric utilities asked customers to stay away from down power lines.

Many grocery stores close in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, but some still selling nonperishables. Linn County Fareway and Aldi stores were closed Tuesday because of power outages caused by Monday’s storm. Many Corridor Hy-Vee stores, as well as Johnson County Fareways and Aldi’s, were open, although most were operating with generators and had to dispose of refrigerated items they could not fit on cold storage trucks. Many shoppers had been relying on grocery delivery services during the coronavirus, but thanks to loss of power, internet, and cell signal, most of those services are now useless. McDonald’s on Mormon Trek Boulevard in Iowa City was 20 cars deep at 11:15 a.m. Employees had locked the doors and weren’t answering the phone, apparently focusing on filling drive-thru orders for hot fries and burgers.

Hardee’s, in Coralville, lost its sign to high winds Monday, but still was serving customers Tuesday afternoon.

Wondering what to do with your tree debris? Every city has remediation plans, and even garbage disposal has been delayed as sanitation workers are helping with cleanup efforts. The recommendations are different depending on where you live, so be sure to check it out at TheGazette.com.

The Gazette Daily news updates are brought to you in part by Corridor Careers. "Are you looking for a job? CorridorCareers.com is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at CorridorCareers.com."

That’s it for today’s update. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?"

This is Stephen Colbert from the Gazette Digital News Desk and I’m here with your update for Tuesday, August 11, 2020.

Yesterday I said we had a 30% chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon and it would be partly sunny after that. All I can say is we weren’t wrong. Wow. What we didn’t know was that 30% chance included a hundred mile wide storm that would down trees and leave over 100k Iowans without power, and a massive property damage bill we have yet to calculate.

Today is going to be mostly sunny with a high of 83 before dropping to 62 tonight. After that, more potential showers and thunderstorms every day, so we’re not out of this yet. Hopefully it’s just not quite as intense as yesterday.

The number of coronavirus cases in Iowa rose yesterday to 49,000 total cases, and the total deaths attributed to coronavirus grew by one to 931.

Educators in Eastern Iowa have spent their summer creating virtual classrooms for students enrolled in online learning to avoid exposure to COVID-19 in schools.

While online education in the spring was reactive as schools hastily closed because of the coronavirus in mid-March, online learning for this fall is proactive.

In both the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City school districts, families have a choice between sending their children to a mix of in-person and online classes or enrolling them in online-only classes.

As of Aug. 4, almost 40 percent of families have chosen the online-only learning option, leaving teachers on the hook to quickly develop a robust online learning plan.

You can find this and the rest of our coronavirus coverage at our dedicated coronavirus page, TheGazette.com/coronavirus.

Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas were hit by 100+ mph hurricane-force winds in yesterday’s storm. Alliant says 95,270 out of 97,603 customers in Linn County lost power, while 9,399 out of 9,827 in Johnson County lost power. MidAmerican said 20,862 out of their 47,836 Johnson County customers were also down.Due to the number of fallen trees and downed wires, it could take several days for all residents to have their power restored.

Cedar Rapids Institutes a Curfew during storm recovery. The citywide curfew started last night at and will run every night from 10:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M until further notice. Police will patrol neighborhoods as streets continue to be cleared of fallen debris and utilities.

The Gazette Daily news updates are brought to you in part by Corridor Careers. "Are you looking for a job? CorridorCareers.com is a resource to local job seekers where they can get job tips, sign up for local job alerts, build a resume and more. Check it out at CorridorCareers.com."

That’s it for today’s update. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what’s the news?"