Third update on US MidWest flooding

The worst economic disaster 

for U.S. farmers in modern 

American history continues. 

At least one million acres 

of U.S. farmland 

were water covered 

by the recent floods.  

Even before the floods, 

U.S. farm incomes 

had already sunk 

to a 12 year low.  

According to 

government regulations, 

when stored crops are flooded, 

they MUST be destroyed.

And the government 

has no program 

to cover those losses.  

Thousands of farmers 

have been 

financially ruined.

Congress needs to act quickly,

but would they pass a new law 

to help the farmers, when

Democrats oppose anything 

that could make Trump look good ?

And the states affected don't vote

for Democrats, so they don't care !

The trade war with China 

depressed prices for wheat, 

corn and soybeans, 

so in early 2019, 

farmers had been storing 

more crops on their farms 

than ever before.

Then the floods came. 

Hundreds of millions 

of dollars in crops that were

destroyed by the flooding 

were not insured.

Without government assistance, 

thousands of farmers will give up on

farming.

Dustin Sheldon, 

a fifth-generation 

grain and soybean farmer, 

said the record-breaking floods 

caused about $1 million 

in losses for his family farm.

“We figured that there is 

roughly $7 million 

worth of grain sitting 

in these grain bins here 

just in our county alone 

that is either destroyed ,

or inaccessible right now ,

that we won’t even be able 

to get to, or sell,” he said. 

“Financially, there’s a lot 

of farmers that can’t 

come back from that, 

and they may be 

out of business.”

USDA Under Secretary Bill Northey 

told Reuters: ... “there’s nothing the 

U.S. government can do to help”…

Millions of bushels of grains 

were destroyed in more than 

800 on-farm storage bins 

– mostly in eastern Nebraska 

and western Iowa.

For 71-year-old farmer 

Bruce Biermann, 

it looks like the end 

has come after 

the floodwaters 

destroyed more than 

$100,000 worth 

of his stored crops.

The two grain bins 

on Biermann’s farm, 

near Corning, Missouri, 

could not withstand 

the strong currents 

of the Missouri River.

With four feet of water 

pressing from the outside 

and grain swelling 

from moisture inside, 

the bins burst.

Because of the trade war, 

Biermann had been storing 

12,000 bushels of corn, 

and 8,200 bushels of soybeans, 

until prices went up again.

Farmer Travis Green, 

who operates farms in both 

Kansas and Nebraska, 

stored 25,000 bushels 

of yellow corn 

in a pair of grain bins 

in White Cloud, Kansas, 

near the Missouri River.

One of the bins 

“literally just blasted open,” 

after it filled with floodwater, 

and the other was uprooted

— destroying an estimated 

$100,000 worth of corn. 

On top of that, Green is unsure 

whether he’ll be able to plant 

anything this year, because of 

the water damage.

AccuWeather estimates the

total damage and economic loss 

caused by record-breaking flooding 

in the Midwestern U.S. this spring 

will total $12.5 billion.

And more flooding is coming !

The snow in Wisconsin 

and Minnesota is melting, 

so flooding is expected 

in northern Illinois 

and southern Wisconsin. 

That’s all going to end up 

in the Mississippi River,

worsening ongoing flooding 

issues near that river, 

and its tributaries.

Links to three prior articles

on this important subject:
https://el2017.blogspot.com/2019/04/second-update-on-midwest-flooding.html

https://el2017.blogspot.com/2019/03/us-midwest-flooding-update.html

https://el2017.blogspot.com/2019/03/us-midwest-flooding-threatens-food.html