MORRILTON, Ark. (KTHV) — Flooding isn’t only affecting neighborhoods and roads, its affecting crops. Farmers are now reporting major losses costing thousands of dollars.
When the rain first hit, farmers tried to salvage all of the equipment they could. Between the two farmers that THV11 spoke with, thousands of acres have been compromised.
Acres and acres of farmland drenched from the rain are now underwater.
“Too much rain, too much rain in Oklahoma, river came up fast.”
And Farmer James Gregory says it’s still rising.
“We’ll have land that is 15 or 20 feet underwater right now.”
Gregory and fellow farmer Randy Deaton say together, they’ve got 6,000 acres underwater.
“In my lifetime, I’ve only seen it higher than this one time…we’ve lost probably 300 acres of corn, at least 300 acres of wheat, and we’ve lost probably 300 acres of soybeans so far,” said Gregory.
Both men say they’re looking at a loss of more than $200,000 each. And to make matters worse, insurance isn’t a cure-all.
“We lost a lot of money,” said Gregory.
Both men already making plans to re-seed their land, but first they have to wait to see the full extent of the damage.
“There’s always people in worse shape than what I am,” said Deaton.
“You keep your mind off of it. You go to work and just keep going,” said Gregory.
With a strong spirit of resilience, and a little bit of hope, Gregory and Deaton turn the page and look forward to better days. But if this happens again, they don’t know if they will be able to bounce back.
