Published: July 25, 2008 03:28 pm            

Respect and a helping hand to assist families affected by storms

A reporter recently asked me to describe the sentiment of Iowa’s livestock farmers affected by this spring’s steady onslaught of tornados and torrential rain.

It was one of the toughest questions I’ve been asked in my 14-year career as an ag communicator.

The easy response would have been to say that everything will be fine. After all, farmers are known for their fierce competitiveness, relentless work ethic and unwavering desire to provide nutritious, abundant and wholesome food. The easy response would have been to say that all will quickly recover, rebuild and move forward just as soon as the water recedes and sand bags are discarded. The easy response would have been that life will quickly return to normal for those affected and that the destruction would readily fade from memory.

Yet I knew better.

I paused on the reporter’s inquiry, reflecting on a similar question I had posed just one week earlier to a farmer from Aurora. While his Buchanan County farmstead survived the EF5 tornado that blew through parts of northeast Iowa in May, his other building sites and dozens of surrounding farms didn’t. Dairy and hog barns were flattened. Grain bins were crushed. Homes were ripped in two. Tails were missing from cattle. Machine sheds were reduced to rubble small enough to place in 5-gallon pails. Silos were torn apart. Farm equipment was pulverized.

“How long until things return to normal?” I had asked the farmer while standing amidst the destruction. He looked me squarely in the eyes and without hesitation responded, “Never.”

That wasn’t the answer I expected to hear. But it was extremely authentic. The relentless pounding of wind, hail and rain has taken its toll. So, too, have the nine Iowa rivers that rose above historic flood levels, submerging livestock barns, homes, neighborhoods and millions of acres of farm fields. Massive tornados packing the ferocity of a freight train with the punch of a hurricane landed multiple punches, demolishing buildings and scattering family heirlooms. Families and 100-year-old oak trees were uprooted, barns flattened and homes razed. Loved ones were lost and others injured.

Yes indeed, lives have been changed – some possibly forever. And that’s the reality of this year’s storms.

With this in mind, I told the reporter that some farmers will rebuild and some won’t. Some will choose to start over in their chosen professions; others will opt for new ones. Regardless of their decisions, however, every farmer will move forward just like their fellow Iowans with confidence and a steely resolve to do what’s best for their families and their future.

As summer proceeds, stories about Iowa’s harsh spring weather will recede from the front page and evening newscasts. But during the months to come, families all across the state will meet around their kitchen tables to discuss and plan their futures. We must respect the decisions they make and be ready to lend a helping hand when needed.

        

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