Posted on 03/22/2019 6:07:51 AM PDT by devane617
WINSLOW, Neb./CHICAGO (Reuters) - Midwestern farmers have been gambling they could ride out the U.S.-China trade war by storing their corn and soybeans anywhere they could - in bins, plastic tubes, in barns or even outside. Now, the unthinkable has happened. Record floods have devastated a wide swath of the Farm Belt across Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and several other states. Early estimates of lost crops and livestock are approaching $1 billion in Nebraska alone. With more flooding expected, damages are expected to climb much higher for the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Says farmers face devastation.
Doesn’t mention a word about food shortages.
But i’ll buy 2 extra big macs later so I feel safe :)
I grew up in that area.
Winslow is without power and a mess. Highway 77 is gone for a few miles. My family in the area (we all live on high ground) have power, but no internet or phone service.
It is like a war hit. People are going back into the areas but many have nothing to come back to.
To the north and west... well buy beef now. The herds got hit hard by snow during calving season.
It is hard to think about what got destroyed. Many are never coming back, many more will go under without any means of recovery. These two events, the snow cyclone and floods, will have a long term effect on the ag markets.
Remember, at one time it was important to have a 3 year reserve. Now if we don’t use the last bushel of old crop the day the new crop comes in we screwed up.
Shortages no.
Big spike in futures? Yes. Beef will be more expensive, and pork also.
The wild card is chicken. Costco was building a massive processing plant (right in the stinking flood plane of the Rawhide!) and many farmers had committed to raising chickens for it. $2 million a pop for the farms. My uncle had offered to go in with on one to get me back home. Glad I didn’t take it.
Ice and snow melt. Spring rain. It floods lowlands near rivers. Cycle repeats.
China has agreed to IMPORT RICE for the first time ever. Let that sink in. Why does this article mention the US China trade war as if we’re losing?
This was a 500 year event. Places that have never had flooding in recorded history had water. Places that the Army Corp had said were safe got wiped out.
Nebraska has more miles of waterways than any other state. Granted, most are small streams and creeks. But the all flooded.
The old farm place where I grew up had a small stream about an 1/8th of a mile away. The house was up hill from that. The creek got with in 40 yards of the house.
In the 125 years my family has been in the area and on that farm, that has never happened.
Fremont was 100% cut off for a few days. The records there go back to before the civil war when it was a trading post. There are no records of floods like that. Granted, the records really only get good around the 1870’s or so.
And it wasn’t the flood. It was the flood everywhere east of around York county and record breaking blizzard everywhere west. The loss of property, livestock, and infrastructure is still being calculated. Many cattlemen have yet to figure out just how bad their losses are, and many local communities have yet to figure out what roads are safe (local farmers are starting to build temporary roads).
Again, this is my home area. The destruction is beyond describing. A normal flood wouldn’t have been “well, we can fish in the field ponds again!” A normal blizzard would be barely a note. Record breaking flooding and blizzards at the same time, during calving season, is a double wammy.
I generally don’t like government intervention in the marketplace.
But this event seems like a tragedy and I hope the government steps in to moderate the damage so that these communities can recover and not face permanent loss of their way of life. That would be bad for the country.
One more thing.
I am related to the people mentioned in the article. The have a nice dike around the farm, and had moved the tractors to a place that has never flooded.
The pictures I have seen show the tractors buried up beyond the axles. That was at least 4 feet above the record high, and over $500K of rolling stock destroyed between those two
Sorry to over post. This hits me hard.
Some video off Twitter of some of the flooding in the nation’s heartland...
None of this is supposed to be under water.
Here’s what the Missouri River looks like just across from Nebraska City into Iowa. If you ever drive to Kansas City, you’re probably familiar with this interchange of I-29 and Highway 2. The Missouri looks like an ocean.
#NSP575 https://t.co/kwkkAs5fha
Continuing prayers for all affected.
Hey Warren Buffet, this is your Chance to PAY MORE TAXES, Maybe the State should pass a Special Assessment on the Rich to pay for the floods.
Ugh ... disgusting how much glowbull warming nonsense is posted at that twitter.
OMG!
No ethanol for gasoline!
If the price of gasoline goes up one penny because of an ethanol shortage, then do away with it for a month.
Once people realize their milage goes up 10% ethanol joke will be gone.
I heard on the local radio this morning (I live just outside of Omaha) that state government is estimating at least 1.5 billion from what they have already assessed in damage just to ag and that they are expecting that the losses will exceed $2 billion once they get the ag damage tallied up. That does not count all the monetary damage to homes and infrastructure. I have heard in the news media that damage total will also exceed a billion dollars. Lots of small towns are trashed and will most likely be unlivable for months with no available water or sewer. Several medium sized cities have been severely impacted as well.
If we have another wet spring and early summer like 2011, the Missouri could be flooded again for months. This could be the gift that keeps on giving, unfortunately.
Local knowledge is a FreeRepublic +. Thanks for posting.
Collectively, we are everywhere, we know everything.
I love FR
U.S. farmers face devastation following Midwest floods, which will probably hurt Trump. Hooray! Hooray!
- Yahoo News
There. Fixed it.
A new chicken processing plant is being built in NW Arkansas, It is on the highest spot between Kansas City and New Orleans. I don’t think they will ever have flood problems.
***This was a 500 year event.***
I remember the 500 year event on Memorial Day, 1976 Tulsa Ok as we got caught in it.
A 500 year event. It happened again eight years later and my brother got caught in it.
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