| CRAB ORCHARD - As Keith Joekel surveyed a field of soybeans Thursday,
he estimated the damage to this and other fields: $500,000.
All that remained of his crop, already stunted by dry weather, was stubble.
The fragile field north of town was pummeled by early morning hail.
"It's just thrashed out," Joekel said, his voice choked with pain. "It's
gone."
The 53-year farmer didn't insure his corn or soybean crop this year.
With such dry conditions, he said, a devastating hailstorm was the last
thing he expected.
As he surveyed the damage, his hopes faded of one day passing down the
2,000-acre farm to his grandson, Kyle, a hard worker who seems to enjoy
the farm life.
"He kind of likes it, but after today he's already asked me if he should
go into town and get a job," Joekel said, gazing with tears and pride as
the teen-ager loaded broken branches into a tractor scoop.
In Crab Orchard, where the hailstorm cut a swath of destruction sometime
after 2 a.m., residents picked up fallen branches and cleared their yards
of debris.
Jerry Little, a lifelong resident of the town, stood outside his home
watching an electrical repairman work on a fallen line. Marble-sized hail
shattered the rear windshield of his 1997 Chrysler Cirrus and strong winds
felled two trees near his house.
"At one time it was like looking out the window at a snow storm," he
said. "It was that bad."
A grain bin on his brother's farm north of Crab Orchard was blown from
its foundation and lifted into a nearby alfalfa field, Little said.
West of Crab Orchard in Filley, residents were mostly spared from hail
but suffered wind damage. Trudy Johnson walked around her acreage plucking
branches from the ground.
"It was just a lot of noise here last night," she said. "We were lucky."
About 13 miles north in Adams, however, the storm caused severe hail
and wind damage to homes, buildings and crops.
In fields around Adams, the hail stripped corn stalks and sheared soybean
plants to the ground. The town's streets, though mostly cleared of large
debris, remained littered with leaves and large branches Thursday afternoon.
At Freeman High School, music teacher Sandy Murphy tried not to notice
her room's shattered windows as she practiced three-four time with a tuba
student. The storm broke 17 windows at Freeman and seriously damaged three
air conditioners.
Principal Bob Michl said hail was piled knee-high along the north side
of the high school when he came to work Thursday. Michl said the air conditioners
will have to be replaced.
"It could be worse, but it's frustrating because we're so far behind
here," he said. "Now, at least to the farmer, this is a pretty big setback." |
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| Hail,
high winds batter homes, damage crops
BY
AL J. LAUKAITISLincoln
Journal Star
Hail
the size of peas, nickels, golf and tennis balls wreaked havoc on parts
of Southeast Nebraska early Thursday morning.
The
hail came from a 20- to 30-mile wide band of storm clouds that began in
the north-central region of the state and swept down through Southeast
Nebraska. It was the latest in a series of storms that have brought relief
to the corner of the state after a week of extreme hot and humid weather.
Golf-ball-
to tennis-ball-sized hail fell at Firth, damaging 114 homes, a nursing
home and two churches, as well as hundreds of acres of crops, according
to the National Weather Service. The same storm downed 6-inch tree limbs
in Burchard and Steinauer. Hail also fell in Beatrice and Roca.
Hailstorms
are common this time of year, but what made this storm so destructive is
the 50 to 60 mph winds that came with it, meteorologist Cathy Zapotocny
said.
"We
get lots of reports of crop damage this time of year. Unfortunately, it
went through a community," she said, referring to the extensive damage
at Firth.
The
storm that hit the Firth area about 2:10 a.m. Thursday did more than shatter
windows and flatten crops, it also brought much needed moisture to Southeast
Nebraska.
Sterling
reported 1.1 inches of precipitation, nearly double the .56 inches that
fell one-mile north of Beatrice, according to the weather service.
A Lincoln
fire station reported 1.22 inches and other parts of the city received
less precipitation. There were no reports of hail damage in the Lincoln
area.
Greeley
received the most rainfall from the storm, 2.21 inches.
So
far in July, Lincoln has received 3.26 inches, which is 1.26 inches above
normal. Last month 5.3 inches of precipitation fell in the Capital City,
which was 1.43 inches above normal.
"During
the last two months we've gotten some good rains," Zapotocny said. "All
this rain is helping."
Don
Wilhite, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University
of the Nebraska-Lincoln, agreed, saying more such rains are needed.
"Conditions
have really improved for crops in Southeast Nebraska, but (farmers) are
kind of living from week-to week because they don't have the subsoil moisture
to rely on," he said.
Until
recently most of the rains have fell fast and didn't have a chance to seep
deep into the ground, Wilhite said. The timely rains have helped the top
two feet of soil, but below that it's still very dry. Lower temperatures
and cloud cover also have helped to improve drought conditions in Southeast
Nebraska.
"We're
coming out of the drought, hopefully that will continue," he said, but
a lot depends on what happens in late July and August.
A new
drought map released by the center Thursday showed Southeast Nebraska on
the border between the severe category and moving into the first stage
of drought. However, the southwest part of Nebraska is still suffering
from extreme drought conditions.
Reach
Al J. Laukaitis at 473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com
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