Unable to call around, Salvation Army volunteers went from supplier to supplier by car trying to find generators. City officials went analog, printing out paper fliers to disseminate information and traveling around town as roads were cleared of debris to help set up resource centers at community gathering spots. “There were city staff that drove to the folks we needed to talk to,” said city council member Tyler Olson. Kim Reynolds submitted a request for federal assistance nearly a week after the storm, citing nearly $4 billion in damages. The storm system, which swept from Nebraska to Ohio on Aug. 10, is known as a derecho, a collection of fast-moving thunderstorms that travel at least 250 miles and have a near-continuous swath of damaging winds.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 22, 2020 15:00 UTC