DES MOINES, Iowa — Storms all across Iowa last night left a trail of debris, including at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
Hundreds mobilized early Wednesday morning to clean up tree branches, repairing tents and evaluating the damage from the wind and rain.
“It’s been a little crazy,” said Mindy Williamson, the Chief Marketing Officer for the Iowa State Fair. “Luckily, fair people are used to fair weather and we got quite a bit of rain last night, a little over three inches.”
Luckily for the fair there was not a whole lot of damage outside of all of the tree debris that was cleaned up Wednesday morning. Vermeer and John Deere assisted in the cleanup along with state fair maintenance staff. That staff includes 50 people and 250 seasonal workers, it was all hands on deck to clean up the property only eight days before the fair.
“The craft beer tent…has some damage. They already removed part of that tent. They’re already going to put up the new part of that tent,” said Williamson. “…and yeah mostly branches. There must have been some high winds over in the front area of the fairgrounds. We had a display camper that got tipped over. It’s already been moved out of here. No one was in it, just displaying a brand new camper that someone will not be buying, the vendor is bringing out a new one.”
The campground is still recovering from the last week of showers and Tuesday night’s rain delayed the process of opening it up again. But some people are already set up and were in their campers as the storms rolled through last night.
“Well we were sleeping but we woke up in between and you know no big deal. Something we are kind of use to from time to time,” said Raymond Thompson from Montezuma. Thompson camps out at the fair every single year with his wife Connie. The couple has been married for decades and a little rain and wind at the fair is something they are used to. “It wasn’t that bad. This is Iowa weather.”
“I had a long stake that had a camper on it and it fell over but I got it back up,” said Connie. “No damage.”
The Thompsons said that they did not have anything damaged on their property and are excited for the fair to start so they can spend time with family and friends.
Williamson said that people should follow the Iowa State Fair’s social media posts for weather updates. The hope is the campground will dry up soon so more campers can come in and get set up. There are also text alerts people can sign up for by texting 844-844-8508.
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