CEDAR RAPIDS — Not even an inland hurricane could stop Ernest “Ernie” Topness.
In August 2020, a straight-line windstorm known as a derecho hit Cedar Rapids, bringing wind gusts of up to 140 mph and causing widespread devastation.
The U.S. Postal Service worker was out delivering mail that day when his postal truck became stuck — pinned between two trees toppled by the powerful storm.
Topness, then in his late 80s, rode out the storm inside of his mail truck on Mallory Street SW just off Wilson Avenue SW in Cedar Rapids. Trees blocked the front and back of his truck. He radioed back to the post office.
“He said, ‘I’m running late because I got to get the trees cleared, but then I’ll finish my route,’” said son Tim Rion-Topness of Cedar Rapids.
As soon as the storm subsided, neighbors who had sheltered in their homes began exiting to survey the damage. They saw Topness and his pinned truck, and quickly grabbed chain saws to cut up and clear the trees.
