KMA Land: Axne tours storm-damaged farm in Altoona
August 20, 2020
Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network
(Altoona) — Third District Congresswoman Cindy Axne this week took a tour of a derecho-impacted farm in Altoona.
Congresswoman Axne says she spoke with the owners of the nearly 2600-acre farm about what aid will be necessary to help Iowa rebuild damaged facilities, and the outlook for this year’s harvest. Axne described the storm damage that she witnessed to the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
“Some of the buildings have some of the sides blown off of the metal siding, as well as the roof,” Axne said. “But the most impactful thing of course is what’s happening to our crops. We took a look at the corn where large swaths of it are either fully down with broken stalks that won’t ever be able to make a recovery, blended with stalks that are almost all the way over but not broken. We have to make sure we can figure out how to get those up and produce anything out of them.”
Axne noted some of the corn on the farm was still standing tall. Overall, she says it was a heartbreaking sight to see.
“It’s going to be a really difficult time for these farmers to, first and foremost, be able to go in and assess the damage, which they are waiting on, and then to determine what they are going to be able to harvest, or what they need to go after right now to save some silage out of,” Axne said. “Just a lot of decisions farmers are in the middle of and another tough hit for Iowa farmers.”
President Donald Trump stopped in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday to assess derecho storm damage and gather input from local and state officials in a roundtable setting. Numerous times the president said help is on the way and that he promises aid as the state recovers from the devastating windstorm.