Millions of acres of farmland were damaged in the derecho in Iowa. | Unsplash
Millions of acres of farmland were damaged in the derecho in Iowa. | Unsplash
Iowa saw 10 million acres of farmland affected by the derecho last Monday, which damaged at least a third of the state's crops during the storms, Gov. Kim Reynolds said.
The derecho isn't the first set back Iowa farmers are facing, with the trade war and COVID-19 pandemic, KCCI 8 Des Moines reported.
One Jasper County farmer said almost all of his 450 acres of corn was destroyed by the derecho. Brian Rumbaugh said he had never seen so much disaster in his time as a farmer.
“This is the worst one I've ever had,” he told KCCI 8. “We had tornadoes go through a while back, tornadoes 300-400 feet wide, (but) this was everything.”
He has insurance that will cover most of the damage, but not all farmers do.
“It's probably 30-40 years I've had it, and thank God,” Rumbaugh told KCCI 8. “That's what you have insurance for is a failsafe, but I've never collected a dime, which is good. Now they owe me.”
But farmers without insurance may still be able to receive assistance from the federal government.
“A part of that federal assistance could be a Small Business Administration declaration or a U.S. Secretary of Agriculture designation, which provides resources for impacted farmers,” Joyce Flinn, with Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management, told KCCI 8.
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