I've been trying to wrap my head around the flooding in Iowa to get a perspective in relation to Katrina. Depending on the weather this could be much worse. In looking at the figures so far some 5 million acres are expected to be under water. That works out to over 7800 square miles of land. On the plus side of this far fewer people lost their lives here than in Katrina but the loss in property and crops will be far greater. If you recall the flooding started just after tornadoes swept through the area.
This is going to hit everyone with very large crop losses. I'm hoping farmers might be able to plant another crop but that remains to be seen. Just wondering how long it will take for the land to be able to take a crop. Remember the floodwaters were contaminated with a number of nasty chemicals and sewage.
7 comments:
Thanks for reminding everyone how much this flooding will affect everyone. The loss of crops combined with the rising price of fuel will only serve as a double whammy on all of us.
I heard that most farmers have crop insurance, that will cover the cost of replanting---but if the land is not tillable in quick order, it will be to late to plant for this year. and like Robert Rouse remarked, how bad is the chemical contaimination?? Its not nice to fool Mother Nature---global warming?? yes it most likely is gonna get more ugly, before it gets better.
New Orleanian here. I hope you have better luck with your insurance companies than we did. They did EVERYTHING possible NOT to payout. It took on average a year to get any money out of them. Some people are still fighting them 3 years later (in court). As to the ground contamination, it turned out to be very over blown. It seems to be fine.
Please know our hearts and prayers are with you. We know better than anyone what you are facing and what your future holds. Stay strong and hold on to each other. You have the strength to do this. Many days it will be too much. But then a new day comes and the strength to go on returns.
Are there any high aerial photos of the flooding? Over that much land, it would surely show up in aerial photos of the area.
this is quite sad given that we had Katrina and now this...
Hell in a handbasket? Have we gone too far and pushed nature over the edge? Scary times...
What I'm hearing from back there is that only a small amount will be able to be replanted and with beans only and the yield at best from that will be 50% of average.
It continues to rain in some places with a big storm passing through SW Iowa as I write this.
The flooding is not just concentrated along the Mississippi but many other places as well just not at the same scale.
Saw a figure of 10% loss in Iowa.
It will be some time before accurate projections are established and remember nothing is a sure bet in this business and there is a long way to go before harvest time.
In the part of the cornfield I come from the last several years timely rains towards the end of the growing season assured bumper crops.
Is this the year across the Corn Belt the rains don't come? No matter what what has happened up to this time will have a dramatic effect on many things none of which is positive.
Thanks for the comments guys. Hat tip to the doctor for his rundown on NO. It's bad enough to lose all you have but to have to fight the companies you paid to protect you is just crimminal.
This is very sad. I'll pray for all those that live there.
Katrina was devastating.
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