Weld County residents recovering from latest hail storm
No one seems to have been more adversely impacted by the latest rash of extreme weather than local farmers.
"The beans? They're disking material," said Stromberger of the 56 acres of beans he had planted.
Stromberger also has 470 acres of corn, most of which has been stripped down to stalks and ears.
"It'll still make something, but it will be a drastic loss of yield, he said. "I'll just have to wait and see how the ears fill out and how they finish."
"As my dad said many, many years ago, when you get hit with hail, the best thing to do is to wait a week," said
She said the damage in the immediate aftermath looks bad, but already there are signs some plants are springing back to life. No matter what damage the storm did, she said, the farm will open to the public as scheduled and will honor its contracts.
"We don't close," she said. "We don't do this to get rich. We do this because we love the public and we love this community."
"We can expect around a 35 percent loss, so we will probably be down from our 230 bushel per acre average to around 150 bushel an acre."
Hergert Land and Cattle is located at the intersection of
"We had quite a bit of other damage," he said. "We had holes in siding, dents and a cracked windshield in my pickup, damaged roofs, and about a complete loss of our personal gardens, and just the general destruction of all vegetation."
Sunday's hailstorm, especially the 20 minutes of golf-ball-sized hail that pounded the
"I don't have any acres of corn that haven't been hit by hail," Betz said. "This year's been a rough one."
"The ones that got hit got hit hard," she said. "I have some guys in
Freeman, however, said farmers know Mother Nature doesn't always play nice.
"What's interesting, when you talk to farmers, they tell you it (getting hailed out) hurts and it's a kick in their stomachs. They also know the reality is that's part of their lives."
Although it might seem like
"Right now is the monsoon season, and we generally get quite a few storms at end of July," she said. "Hail usually happens during the summer, and there's always a potential for hail with any large storm, so this isn't abnormal."
The fast-moving storm hit
Local police were busy Sunday after the storm responding to residential and commercial alarms, nearly all of which were attributed to windows shattering because of the hail. An untold number of cars also were damaged, including several police cruisers, said Lt. Fred Meyer of
"We do have some damaged cars, but we don't know how many we'll need to send out for repairs again," He said. "We also don't yet know the extent of the damage."
As is often the case following a massive hailstorm, residents should expect to encounter contractors going door-to-door to drum up some business. Meyer recommended local residents do their homework before entering in to an agreement with anyone offering repair services.
"There's probably some people out there going door-to-door who are legitimate, but also a number who aren't," Meyer said. "It's always best to consult with your insurance company about referrals for reputable contractors and auto repair shops."
-- Tribune reporter
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