Brian Gongol: April 2008 Archives

The company, which has built a bunch of developments throughout the Des Moines area and in other parts of the state, has abruptly closed up shop after running out of financing. Regency's business and construction practices inspire some very strong opinions, but there's no escaping the fact that the company has been significant to the homebuilding industry in Iowa. It's a very big event for Iowa Realty, which sells most of Regency's new homes. On a related note, lots of Iowa homeowners are now looking for earthquake insurance. The quality of homebuilding has an obvious effect on the risk to life and limb posed by earthquakes.

Mahaska County got a tornado hit yesterday, moving us officially into tornado season. Looks like Severe Weather Awareness Week might need to come earlier next year. A little farther to the east, a guy sitting near Keota caught a pretty clear photo of another tornado yesterday.

It's Severe Weather Awareness Week in Iowa, with a special topic for each day: Flooding on Monday, severe thunderstorms today, tornadoes (with the statewide tornado drill) tomorrow, NOAA Weather Radio on Thursday, and preparedness on Friday.

There's a reason this event happens in early April: It's just slightly into tornado season in Iowa. It probably would be smarter to schedule the "awareness week" for just a little earlier in the year, like the end of March, because several of the state's worst tornado outbreaks have actually occurred in early April. But by pushing it earlier in the year, it might be overwhelmed by people's natural inclination to still be preoccupied with the end of winter weather...which, given last week's freak snowstorm, might be a challenge to overcome. But if we're going to practice a tornado drill, then it might be best to have that practice prior to any time we'd normally expect to get a twister.