Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Storm Lake, IA

Storm Lake is the county seat of Buena Vista County, Iowa, sitting on the northern shore of Storm Lake, a natural glacial lake.

The city takes its name from the lake, which legend says was named after a trapper was caught there in a severe storm.

Storm Lake's first European settler, Abner Bell, arrived in 1856, and railroad magnate John Insley Blair platted land in the town in the 1870s as the Illinois Central Railroad was built through it.

Storm Lake was incorporated on February 28, 1873.

Storm Lake's population was 11,269 in the 2020 census, up from 10,076 in 2000, and the 2020 census counted 3,597 households in the city.

Storm Lake is one of the only cities in Iowa with a non-white majority population - in the 2020 census, Hispanic or Latino residents made up 40.8% of the population and non-Hispanic white residents just 32.7%.

Census Bureau QuickFacts estimates that more than half of Storm Lake's residents - 53.3% - speak a language other than English at home.

Storm Lake became a landing place for Hmong and Tai Dam refugees after the Vietnam War, and it is one of only ten cities in the mainland United States to host a polling location for Micronesian elections.

The Tyson Foods meatpacking plant in Storm Lake employs more than 2,500 people and accounts for roughly 3.5% of all pork production in the United States; the plant originally opened in 1935.

Storm Lake is home to Buena Vista University, a private university with about 1,959 students on a 60-acre campus as of 2023 - when its main building burned in 1956, the central brick archway was salvaged and still stands.