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Storm claims 2 more Iowans

DES MOINES (AP) — Officials on Thursday attributed two more deaths to the powerful storm that struck Iowa earlier in the week.

A 42-year-old woman sitting on her porch in Malcom on Monday was struck by a large tree blown over as the storm moved through, Poweshiek County Sheriff Thomas Kriegel said.

A 41-year-old electrician who worked for the city of Brooklyn also died Monday when he was electrocuted by a power line he was reconnecting, Kriegel said.

The area about 55 miles east of Des Moines is still reeling from extensive power outages.

Officials in Cedar Rapids previously confirmed a bicyclist died after being hit by one of several large trees that fell on a bike path.

The rare storm known as a derecho hit Monday with 100 mph winds, devastating parts of the power grid, flattening valuable corn fields and damaging homes and farms buildings.

“The storm was the equivalent of a 40-mile wide tornado that rolled over 100 miles of the state,” said Dusky Terry, president of ITC Midwest, which owns and operates some of the power lines damaged by the storm.

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