Area experiences crop damage due to storms, Haskell Co. road washed away

May 28--Following a night of heavy rain, hail and tornadoes, numerous wheat crops across several counties experienced severe damage.

The areas most affected were in Haskell, Lane, Hodgeman and northeast Finney counties.

In northeast Finney County, wheat farmer Grover Whipple said he had what appeared to be 100 percent damage to his crop due to hail and tornadoes, which lasted from 7 p.m. to midnight Wednesday night. He also said his neighbor had a building blow away, and several of his trees were blown down.

Finney County Emergency Manager Gilbert Valerio said some areas near Kansas Highway 156 also had lingering water on the roads. All roads are now open.

Stormy weather continued on Thursday afternoon and evening, prompting severe thunderstorm warnings and a couple of short-lived tornado warnings in the area but no reports of damage.

Mike Umscheid, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Dodge City, said the tornadic activity was in the Friend area and farther north near Leoti, but stayed over rural areas.

According to radar estimates of rainfall, Thursday's round of storms were concentrated over northern parts of Kearny and Finney counties, and into Scott County, and brought 2 to 3 inches of rain. Garden City was estimated to have received three-fourths to an inch of rainfall.

A flood warning was issued for eastern Haskell County until 1 a.m. Friday due to runoff. Law enforcement reported flooding across the county, particularly in the Sublette and Tice areas.

Haskell County also experienced severe wheat crop damage from hail, especially near Sublette on Wednesday night.

"Everybody in the Sublette area has damage," Haskell County wheat farmer Hayes Kellman said. The road in front of Kellman's house, OO Road, was also shut down last night due to water overflow.

Kellman said there were 3 to 4 inches of rain within an hour, which flooded many roads and fields. He won't know the severity of damage to his crops until the water drains off.

Debbie Brown, Haskell County's emergency manager, said there is one official report of tornado damage and several roads that were damaged from flooding.

The tornado touched down north of Highway 160 and destroyed eight farm bins and one grain trailer, as well as destruction to the farm sheds there. Road 230 at FF was underwater early Thursday afternoon, and County Road CC at Highway 56 was washed out.

Brown said there was approximately 30 minutes of hail in Satanta and Sublette, which ranged from quarter-sized to 2.5 inches in diameter. There was no reported hail damage, though.

In Kearny County, hail missed a lot of wheat farms, and the storms are both helping and hurting farms in the areas.

"The rains have been doing a lot of good, and they've also hurt to a degree. There's good and bad things about everything, but generally, if you look back to last year at this time, we had severe dust storms and wind erosion because it was so dry," Lane County wheat farmer Vance Ehmke said. "And believe me, wet is better than dry."

Lane County had a tornado touch down in an open area, so there was no damage to any structures, Lane County Emergency Manager Bill Taldo said. However, he said, there were heavy floodwaters that caused trash and debris to wash through the town and there was hail damage in isolated areas.

Gray County had four irrigation pivots reported overturned due to high wind gusts and heavy rainfall, Gray County Emergency Manager Rayna Maddox said. Two of them were at 11 and J Road, one at Four and D Road and one at A and Five Road.

Stanton County seems to be having the opposite problem of other counties in the area -- not enough rain.

"The dry land wheat doesn't look too good," Stanton County wheat farmer Bret Kendrick said. "We just started getting rain the last three weeks, but prior to that we were super dry and all the wheat dried out. We had no storm damage last night. In fact, we didn't even get much rain."

Despite Stanton County's lack of rain, several counties are experiencing some of the heaviest rainfall ever in May.

Jeff Elliot, Kansas State University Southwest Researcher, said the average rainfall in Garden City during May is 2.98 inches. May 2015 has had 5.74 inches so far. The average rainfall in Garden City from January through May is usually 7.04 inches. There has been 7.94 inches of rain since Jan. 1.

Christopher Redmond, assistant scientist with the Kansas State University Department of Agronomy, said four other area counties have experienced excessive rainfall so far this year.

Lane County normally has 8.04 inches of rain by May, but has had 9.46 inches so far.

Kearny County usually has 5.85 inches of rainfall from January through May, but has had 8.25 inches so far this year.

Finney County also has experienced excessive rainfall. It usually receives 7.07 inches through May, but already has received 8.55 inches.

Haskell County has had the most dramatic rainfall increase. The county usually has 6.02 inches of rainfall from January through May, but so far this year has had 9.71 inches.

When managing the damage to crops, Kellman said there are only a few things to do.

"You better hope you have insurance and just deal with it," Kellman said. "It's a fact of farming that it's going to hail every now and then, and as far as the wheat crop goes, we just see how it adjusts out."

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