Iowa officials estimate that as many as 14 million acres of farmland -- an increase from an earlier estimate of 10 million acres and more than one-third of the state's total farmland -- were damaged during a derecho, a line of intense and fast-moving windstorms that marauded across the prairie.
Hundreds of millions of bushels of grain in commercial storage bins, and tens of millions of bushels in on-farm storage bins also were likely lost in the storm.
As the winds howled outside, gusting at more than 100 mph, families hid in their basements and wondered what would await them when they emerged.
Many across the Corn Belt of central Iowa were stunned by what they saw -- millions of acres of corn and soybeans tangled and torn apart; roofs torn off grain bins; buildings leveled -- another daunting setback in a farming community still dealing with economic challenges compounded this year by the effects of the coronavirus.
The hardest-hit counties, a band of 36 across Iowa, included 3.6 million acres of corn and 2.5 million acres of soybeans.
The true monetary loss probably won't be known for weeks, but even farmers whose fields were not totally leveled will suffer losses. "It's hard to really get your arms around the devastation at this point," said Shannon Textor, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Corn Growers Association.
Brian Sampson of Nevada, Iowa, said about 80% of his 1,000 acres of corn were destroyed. A building that houses cattle, called a hoop building, was ripped apart, and the roof of a grain bin and another small outbuilding were destroyed.
The damage to the buildings alone could cost him $350,000, he said.
Sampson also lost the roof on his home, and the water that poured inside is starting to smell, he said.
"It's depressing to see all your work, and all your neighbors' hard work and everything you were trying to do -- and it just gets wiped out in 10 minutes," he said.
The past few years have been tough for many farmers in Iowa and elsewhere in the Midwest.
Beginning in about 2013, a number of factors, including a leveling out of the ethanol industry, caused demand growth for corn and soybeans to slow even as production increased, said Chad Hart, an economist at Iowa State University who specializes in the crop market.
That led to a decline in prices, made even more difficult by ongoing trade disputes between the Trump administration and China, one of the main foreign purchasers of U.S. crops.
"The short story is, 2019 was the year from hell, and we were glad when it was over," said Jim Greif, a corn and soybean farmer in Prairieburg, about 60 miles north of Iowa City. "Now, 2020, I don't know what you'd call it, but it's worse than last year."
Adding to the setbacks, covid-19 dragged down prices even further.
"Farmers have basically been treading water financially for the past three to four years," Hart said. "That was the mix that we were in coming into this disaster."
In Iowa, corn and soybeans are harvested in late September and early October, and this year was set to be one of the largest harvests in years.
New trade agreements among the Trump administration, Japan and China also provided some optimism at the start of 2020. But the impact from covid-19 and now the storm have dampened spirits.
"It's a tough go right now," said Mike Naig, the Iowa secretary of agriculture. "To go from what was expected to be a great yield, a great year potentially, to collecting a crop insurance payment, that's tough."
Rod Pierce, who grows mostly corn on 1,800 acres in Woodward, Iowa, emerged from his basement to a chilling scene.
Trees were uprooted. Six of his grain bins were destroyed; one had blown on top of his barn and across a road, snapped a light pole, then finally came to rest about a quarter-mile away.
The corn was devastated. Much of it is now laid flat, either broken or bent over. By Friday, the shucks were beginning to yellow.
Pierce said harvesting what corn is left will be difficult and expensive, and could damage harvesting machines.
"We don't know what it's going to be like," he said. "We've never seen it this flat."
He worries that the storm, combined with already tough markets from the coronavirus, may push younger farmers to their limits.
"Our young farmers that are just getting started are just depressed," he said. "Financially, they're going to be strapped. I wish I had an answer for the younger generation. This is really going to be devastating to them."