VINTON, Iowa - Emergency management coordinators in counties hit hardest by Monday morning’s severe storms are scrambling to gather damage estimates amid cleanup efforts in hopes of landing federal aid. Gov. Terry Branstad issued emergency disaster proclamations for Benton and Tama counties following the thunderstorms that ripped through the region early Monday, downing trees, snapping power lines, detaching roofs and pummeling entire structures. Emergency management coordinators for both Benton and Tama counties spent Tuesday taking advantage of state resources made available through Branstad’s proclamations to clean up debris and restore services to their respective communities. Both agencies also are in the process of assessing the damage to government infrastructure so they can present information to the state that could land them a federal disaster declaration and access to additional government resources. “We are putting together a package to request the state go for a presidential declaration,” said Scott Hansen, coordinator for the Benton County Emergency Management Agency. “I don’t know if we’ll get it or not. But we need to request it.” Hansen said he doesn’t know the total value of the storm’s damage in his county, although he expects it’s in the millions. “I’m 51 years old, and this is the worst storm I’ve ever seen in Benton County – in my whole life,” Hansen said. “One farm I was at had eight grain bins destroyed, and all their combines were in the machine sheds. That’s close to $1 million at one farm.” Hansen said he expects by Wednesday to have tallied up the damage values for government buildings and properties so his county has a shot at federal assistance. “If we can get federal reimbursement for a lot of the costs we will incur for cleaning this all up, that is a savings to the local taxpayers,” he said. In the mean time, Hansen said, the additional state resources in the form of dump trucks and grapple loaders have been “tremendously” helpful in clearing roads and removing hazards. “This stuff isn’t picked up easily,” he said. Tama County also lauded the state assistance Tuesday as officials there continued to restore basic services to its residents. Julie Vokoun, assistant emergency management coordinator for Tama County, said the governor’s proclamation enabled crews to bring in generators and portable lights. “We still have a lot of people without power,” she said. “We are trying to get people basic necessities until they can get back into their homes.” Tama County is working to do an assessment of the damage to government buildings in hopes of getting assistance from the federal government. “But we are not planning on receiving anything,” Vokoun said. Because the damage is so widespread, it could take a week or longer to determine the total value of everything lost or damaged, according to Vokoun. “It cut our county right in half,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.” EMA Explains Why Outdoor Sirens for Vinton and Garrison Failed to Sound During Monday's Storm Todd and Sheri Lehman say they felt the storm in Vinton Monday night. They saw the rain and heard the wind, but didn’t hear sirens. That’s because the outdoor sirens did not go off for Vinton and Garrison early Monday morning when 100 mph wind gusts destroyed trees, homes and power lines. “I’m not sure which would have beat us to the punch - the sounds of the siren or the sound of the storm blowing through,” Todd Lehman said. “They may have known something was coming it would have been better to be safe than sorry,” said Lehman’s Wife, Sheri Lehman. Benton County Emergency Management Director Scott Hansen is the man in charge of setting off the outdoor alert system. “There’s always a misconception about the sirens they are for outdoor warnings,” said Hansen. He says the Lehmans and other Vinton and Garrison residents didn’t hear the sirens because they didn’t go off, but also because many people were inside at the time. “If you’re in your home doors closed air conditioning on you’re not going to hear an outdoor warning siren,” said Hansen. Hansen says ever home needs a weather radio to alert them to severe weather. Relying only on the outdoor sirens is a mistake. The EMA director tells us Monday night’s storm shifted quickly. Winds picked up unexpectedly and before he could sound the outdoor alarm the wall of straight line winds hit the town. “It’s always a judgment call,” he said. “Sometimes we hit it OK, sometimes we miss it a bit.” Hansen says Benton County likely won’t review the 70 mph policy for setting off the sirens. He stresses they are for outdoor warnings - people need to prepare themselves inside with a weather radio tuned to their county. Vinton Hospital Doesn’t Escape Storm Damage When the storm hit a 20 foot brick chimney on one hospital building fell over into another. It caused a gaping hole in a patient room, the hospital says a patient was in the damaged room when the chimney fell but he was not hurt. Hospital administration closed it soon after. The chimney’s bricks also caused damage to the ceiling of the dialysis center, which means that also had to be closed. “We work with Mercy Hospital with our dialysis unit and right now we are providing transportation for three patients back and forth to Cedar Rapids to Mercy Hospital,” Hospital administrator Mike Riege told KCRG-TV9. Administrators want to make it clear, besides those two areas the hospital is up and running as normal. Construction on the dialysis center and the one patient room is expected to last about a month. Utility Crews Struggling to Restore Power in Storm-Damaged Areas Hundreds of homes and businesses in Eastern Iowa remained without power on Tuesday as utility crews scrambled to repair the serious storm damage. Transmission company crews compared the kind of damage they’re seeing to what they’d typically see after a serious ice storm — miles of lines on the ground and hundreds of utility poles snapped off. Of course, the weather is obviously different from if crews were trying to restore power in mid winter. If you measure the size of the job by the number of poles to replace, then you can put Alliant Energy down for about 400 in that company’s statewide territority. Kent Sodawasser, senior manager for Alliant customer operations, said he would have much preferred a tornado instead of the straight line winds that ripped through parts of the state early Monday morning. “During a, typical tornado, you’re looking at replacing maybe a dozen poles,” Sodawasser said. Because the straight line winds impacted a much larger area Sodawasser said “with this particular event it was like a roller going over the countryside.” Since the damage to electrical systems crossed utility boundaries, the repair timetable was different in different locations. For instance, Alliant crews expected to wrap up Wednesday in the eastern region and perhaps Thursday in the central part of the state. Vinton, though, operates a municipal utility and the home-by-home hookups will take much longer. One manager estimated that 60 to 70 percent of Vinton customers were still without power as of Tuesday afternoon. He expected the majority to have electricity within two or three days. As a municipal utility, Vinton called in crews from other municipal utilities statewide to assist. Some residents in Vinton may try to “tough it out” without power. But one resident said a lot of people appeared to do what she did — find somewhere else with power to spend the night. “Last night (Monday) I came back at about eight o’clock and nobody was around. It was dead everywhere,” one person said. Cleanup Continues in Vinton Following Monday's Storm The city of Vinton remained a disaster area on Tuesday. Thousands are still without power, and the cleanup from yesterday’s powerful storm will take days. For Gordon Turek, just getting out of the driveway takes some skill, “it’s completely blocked with tree trunks, telephone wires, all just intertwined and zigzagged around.” His street is blocked just about every way you look. “They haven’t come through with the unloaders to clean up so we’re still kind of plugged and stuck.” Others aren’t allowing themselves to be stuck. They’re finding other ways to get around town. “You couldn’t get out because of the transformer and electric lines were down and the power lines and trees all over the place. But you could get out in a golf cart,” said Sharon Amato. Some people depend on driving the roads for their jobs. One Vinton letter carrier describes them as “interesting.” “If we get to a street that’s impassible you drive around the block and try to get at in from another direction,” said Letter Carrier Paul Ries. Mother Nature’s mess on city roads put a hold on some mail delivery. Monday more than 200 deliveries were undeliverable. Benton County Fair to Start As Scheduled, Thanks to Volunteers The devastating storms that moved across Eastern Iowa early Monday morning impacted the Benton County Speedway. According to the track’s race promoter Dana Benning, damage caused by the strong winds will be fixed in time to hold the Benton County Fair points races Thursday at 7 p.m. The races were the first of four straight days of shows originally scheduled at the track, including a Race ‘Em and Wreck ‘Em Challenge on Friday, demolition derby Saturday and regular weekly points races Sunday. “The fair is going to go on,” Benning said in a phone interview Tuesday while travelling out-of-state for work. “The show is going to go on as scheduled. Benning praised the Benton County Fair Board for their efforts. Seventy-five volunteers showed up to clean the fairgrounds, and many of them started work Tuesday to repair the damage suffered at the track. Benning said a shack, where drivers check in and register their cars for races was picked up and moved by the winds that reportedly reached speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. Stretches of a fence that separated the pits and track from the main area was blown down and some billboards were blown away. The bare dirt track was fine. “When people come to the races on Thursday, other than this horse barn they built a couple years ago being damaged, they may not even know the storm affected the fairgrounds,” Benning said. “It was purely because of volunteer help and the diligence of the fair board.” Windstorms destroyed the grandstands at Independence Motor Speedway in 2008, but Benton County Speedway was more fortunate. “That’s the first thing that came to mind when I heard about these winds,” Benning said about the past damage in Independence. “The grandstands (in Vinton) were unharmed other than some minor cosmetic damage.” Many residents of Vinton were without power, which could have been a concern with night races. It won’t be an issue Thursday when race car drivers compete in IMCA Sportmods, hobby stocks and sport compacts. “We have power there,” Benning said. “That’s probably an advantage of being on the edge of town is we can get power quicker than the people deeper in town where they have a lot more tree damage and lines down.” The races will be part of an event that will attempt to give the community some momentary relief from the devastation from Monday morning’s storms. Local fans may be reeling from those effects, but the goal is for the races, and fair as a whole, to provide a brief escape. “This fair is going to give them something to provide them some normalcy,” said Benning, noting that some will have to return to a house with damage or without electricity. “They can come to the fair and enjoy themselves. We’ll do our part to make it a good experience for them.”