By: Jonathan Xu

Dear Editor,

This letter is written concerning an article about the Iowans who have been suffering the last couple of days due to a terrible disaster. The article highlights some of the most important reasons why we should not cast them out of our minds.

During these uneventful times of the global coronavirus pandemic, there has been much turmoil, both politically and publicly. The U.S. is having its own election over who the next president ought to be, one that has shown many times that it is more heated than usual. Civil rights movements have exploded in the past months, after the death of George Floyd, with many violent and controversial encounters between citizens and state troopers.

The article I am responding to focuses on some of the hardships that Iowans have to endure, with little to no help from the outside public. The derecho that devastated Iowa, destroying thousands of homes, and leaving almost 200,000 people without power.

In a time where there is much going on in the world, a storm, no matter how severe is often overlooked in the news as people rush to see the latest political headlines. Within a week, the disaster has already moved to the back of most people’s minds, but remains the center of hundreds of thousands of people’s problems.

In a local’s account of the events following the destruction of the hurricane-speed winds, he stated that “Some of my friends and relatives who are outside of the area had no idea what we were going through.” Unfortunately, the lack of information and help does not stop there, as Lemi Tilahun, the local continued to describe the dismal conditions and minimum aid, “And it’s not just the national response that was missing; even locally, it wasn’t until Friday or over the weekend that the attention began to come to the apartment complexes.”

Before, during disasters like Hurricane Harvey, Katrina, and many other hurricanes as well as natural disasters, they gained national attention immediately. Relief efforts and donation programs set up were immediately filled up, but now, amidst the state of confusion the U.S. is in now, the relief efforts have not been enough to help the ones who were affected by the storm.

It is time to bring this issue to national attention, before we lose the best overall ranked state of the country to poverty. Presidential race or not, the government’s main objectives are to promote economic growth and an overall healthy and balanced country. This means the government should be more focused on fixing current issues like the Iowan devastation, than concentrating on the next election.

Maybe then, the current president may get more support, especially from the Iowans.

Final Word Count: 452