Gazette Daily News Podcast, August 11
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.
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