| PERSPECTIVE |
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(September 4, 2002) -
It’s one of the worst natural disasters in Nebraska history. The drought of 2002 may cost the state more than 1.4 billion dollars. That’s nearly five times more than the damage inflicted by the 1980 Grand Island tornados. Drought victims aren’t as obvious as other natural disasters, but there are thousands in Nebraska. Farmers with little crop to harvest, store owners seeing a business slow down. “Statewide’s” Mike Tobias these and other stories of the drought of 2002.
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Transcript of Sapped Soil, Sapped Spirits
[Mike Tobias/Reporting]
Mother Nature teased southwest Nebraska on this August night. Folks hoped rain would be the encore to this fireworks show. But it didn't rain much. That's the way it's gone all summer for farmers like Jerry Kuenning.
[Jerry Kuenning/Imperial Farmer]
I'm 47 years old, and it's certainly the driest I've seen and can remember. We have a neighbor that I respect and think the world of. He says it's drier now than what it was in the 30s.
[Tobias]
Kuenning's land started the year behind after two dryer-than-normal years. Since then he's seen half the usual amount of precipitation. Now his dryland corn looks like dried up weeds.
[Kuenning]
This corn should be three foot taller over my head, and it should have ears on it. You can see its just bearing stalks and trying to fall over.
[Tobias]
He'll cut it for cattle feed, losing about 130 dollars an acre. His irrigated corn is in better shape, but it's taken a lot of work.
[Kuenning]
We pumped the month of June more than we'd typically pump the month of July. Just had to to keep the corn up and growing. Keep it alive.
[Tobias]
It's been expensive. Kuenning's spent twice as much an acre on irrigation, not counting the extra cost of maintaining pivots that are working overtime. And he's had to lower one well 80 feet to hit water. Statewide, experts believe corn harvest will be down at least 20 percent from last year, and soybean harvest will be 23 percent less. Wheat was down 22 percent - the smallest crop harvested since 1944.
[Tobias]
Raising cattle has also been more expensive. Kuenning would normally keep his calves grazing on pasture land 2 and a half months longer than this year. He brought them into his feedlot early because there's not much grass left in his pastures.
[Kuenning]
That's another added expense to our calves, feeding them 75 days where we already have the grass either rented or our own ground. We're so sandy in our pastures. It's pretty much sandhill grass, that we just don't want to damage it cause we'll see those scars for a lifetime. So we better just take our hit now and move on with it.
[Tobias]
Pastures in many parts of the state are in bad shape.
[Tom Dill/UNL Extension Agent]
It's probably going to take, on most of those pastures, 2 to 4 years before they're back to where they were 3 years ago. So we're really talking in a lot of those instances, a 5 to 7 year reduced productivity off of those pastures.
[Tobias]
Wayne Lutz decided to cut his losses. This day Lutz sold the last of his calves - 16 head. He'd normally keep them through the winter and then sell for a higher price - maybe 400 dollars more a head.
[Wayne Lutz/Dundy County Cattleman]
We don't have enough feed to keep the cow herd and the calves. We fed most of the summer due to the fact that we didn't have anything in the pastures.
[Tobias]
Lutz isn't alone. Most years summer is slow at the Imperial Auction Market - a couple sales a month, maybe 400 head at each sale. This year Lloyd Wilson runs sales every week - some with more than 2 thousand cattle.
[Lloyd Wilson/Imperial Auction Market]
It's not because of the good market. The market's probably 10 to 15 dollars lower than just a year ago. They're not selling because of the high market. It's totally just out of feed. There are several people that have called and said, send the trucks, they've sold all their cattle. Just sell their cows, their calves. These would be some older people, been in business probably 40-50 years, and they just sell everything. Almost have tears in their eyes when the last cow goes through the ring, you can see it. And they'll probably never be back in business, I'm afraid.
[Tobias]
The cruel irony of it all? Farmers like Kuenning say they've worked harder than ever this year, and won't break even.
[Kuenning]
We're probably going to spend the next four years recovering what we lost this one year. It's going to take us that long. And time. Dollar value? We're still not out of it yet. We don't know.
[Dill]
Realistically we're probably looking at maybe 15 percent of the producers in the four county area that I work in that may break even or better this year. Which means there's 85 percent of them that probably will have a losing proposition this year.
[Kuenning]
We know next year will be better.
[Tobias]
Kuenning's surprisingly upbeat. But his operation is strong, and will likely survive. Other may not.
[Kuenning]
If this goes into the winter and into next year, it will be pretty serious. There will be some people that won't survive.
[Doug Gaswick/Midwest Farm Equipment, Imperial]
We've talked to some farmers, medium to smaller farm operators, that have basically that after this year they're going to rent their ground and go find a job in town. And that's really sad.
[Tobias]
When farmers are hurting, so are guys like Bill Eskew. He makes a living hauling other peoples grain. Lately he's spent more time sitting on his front step than in the cab of his truck. Last summer he was on the road six days a week. The drought killed business this summer.
[Bill Eskew/Trucker]
I set for three months, for a while. I just hauled some corn. I hauled 18 loads out. And right now I'm done.
[Tobias]
No loads means no income for this independent trucker. He's barely making ends meet.
[Eskew]
We cut everything to the bare minimum. We just do what we've gotta do.
[Tobias]
Doug Gaswick tells similar story at Midwest Farm Equipment in Imperial.
[Gaswick]
Right now it's pretty tough with the drought. This year the equipment sales are off quite a bit, I'd say 30-40 percent from an average year.
[Tobias]
That translates into 3 to 4 million dollars of lost business.
[Gaswick]
We don't want to get to the point to lay people off, because we just don't feel that's the right thing to do. But it 's certainly been a consideration.
[Tobias]
When sales slump, the impact extends beyond the business. Declining sales means declining tax revenue...and Midwest Farm Equipment accounts for 10-15 percent of Chase County's taxable sales. Some have also seen a slow down at non-farm businesses.
[Bill Bell/Grant City Administrator]
A lot of the farming people haven't been coming into town and spending quite a bit of money, as much as they're used to spending.
[Dill]
You talk to the retailers and you visit with people on main street and there are some of those businesses that are not doing as well as they have in the past and eventually it's going to catch up to all of them I believe.
[Tobias]
The effect on main street Nebraska may hit harder this fall, once harvest is over and farmers know for certain how great a loss they'll take. The effect on Nebraska's lakes and rivers is more obvious. The waters of Lake McConaughy should reach the openings near the top of this structure - called a "morning glory." But levels are the second lowest since this man-made reservoir opened in 1941.
[Jerry Steinke/Kingsley Dam Superintendent]
The water level right now is about 46 feet below full pool, and about 36, 37 feet below normal pool.
[Tobias]
Less water is coming into Lake McConaughy than any time on record. At one point, the lake was dropping a foot every two days. Blame a lack of snow and rain in Wyoming to run downstream and fill the lake. Irrigation canals running from the lake are the lifeblood for thousands of Nebraska farmers. There was enough water this year, although some farmers paid higher rates for extra water. There's likely enough water in the lake to take care of most farmers next year, although some may not get their full allotment. More drought, though, and problems could get serious.
[Jeremie Kerkman/Central NE Public Power & Irrigation Dist.]
Another year like this could cause problems. Not because we'll be out of water by the end of next year, but looking into the future, if we don't have significant snow pack in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming this winter and next winter, those reservoirs could very well go dry, and shortly after that in 2004 we may not have enough water for irrigation.
[Tobias]
Low water is an immediate concern for Cheryl Roche. She and her husband run a store, cabins and boat rental on Lake McConaughy -one of the state's most popular tourist attractions. Their summer got off to a great start - wildfires sent more Coloradans east to jet ski, boat and fish. But falling water levels took the Roche's boat dock out of commission in early August.
[Cheryl Roche/Samuelson's Eagles Nest]
Just last week the boat ramp became unusable because the water is so low. Therefore, we've seen a reduction in our business in just that one week.
[Tobias]
Roche is also worried about next year.
[Roche]
Typically the lake will regain water, but if there's no water from Mother Nature, it's not going to regain. So next year would be a concern. Just have to pray for a very wet winter.
[Tobias]
Downstream from Lake McConaughy, the Platte River dried up at Grand Island in early August. This hasn't happened in more than 20 years, although before Lake McConaughy it used to happen most summers. The worst victims this year were the fish and other creatures that call the river home - it may take years for the various species to fully recover. It will take a lot of water to get the Platte going again.
[Susan France/NE Dept. of Natural Resources]
Once you get a river dry, to get water to go back into that water you need quite a bit of water. Because it's not only dry on the top, but often it's gone down a couple feet or three feet that has to be filled, we call it filling the profile, to get the water back up where you will see it on top.
[Tobias]
Low water in the Platte hasn't hurt many farmers this year. But France says other low rivers have. She says 10 or the 12 river basins in Nebraska have had to shut off irrigation water to some farmers this summer.
[France]
We have one irrigation district that's been in existence since the '30s, and this is the first year that they're not going to deliver water because they were only going to get a two inch allocation and decided that was not going to do anyone any good. I think it's probably as bad a year as it's been in the last 50 years, at least.
[Tobias]
It's been a challenge for Jerry Velte to keep his yard green this summer. No rain, and restrictions on how often he can water.
[Jerry Velte/Grant]
Our watering days are Tuesday and Thursday.
[Tobias]
Grant is one of more than 40 Nebraska towns with drought-related mandatory water restrictions. Still more have had voluntary restrictions at various times this summer. Grant has three wells - pumping at peak levels and close to hitting a dry bottom.
[Bell]
Right now our wells are at about 320 to 340 feet. They're only 360 deep.
[Tobias]
And losing ground.
[Bell]
Yeh, quickly.
[Tobias]
Grant had considered more restrictions to avoid running out of drinking water - like banning watering altogether. Velte says he'd adjust if that happens.
[Velte]
I'd go to rock and cactus and things like that. We do spend a lot of water on grass, that's for sure. I actually feel guilty about it.
[Tobias]
The Imperial Volunteer Fire Department covers a lot of ground. In this case racing 25 miles outside of town to fight a wildfire started by accident, but fueled by drought.
[Brian Carman/Imperial VFD Fire Chief]
We had some people who were burning off some old dead trees and thought they had the fire under control and the sparks jumped out and it ended up burning quite a bit of grass and got into this other tree patch in here.
[Tobias]
This wildfire only burned about 5 acres. Others have been worse. A fire near Gothenburg burned for a week, consuming more than 20 thousand acres. There've already been more wildfires this year than all of last year. Carman says the fire risk is as bad as he's seen in 16 years with the Imperial Fire Department. He's concerned about what could happen when fall harvest begins.
[Carman]
All the traffic on the roads and everybody out in the fields and stuff. Catalytic converters on pick-ups, that's a big one that seems to get things. So we're just kind of holding our breath and hoping nothing nasty happens.
[David Mussmann/Ruskin Farmer]
You can step over a row and see they are about knee high. A lot of the beans on the top here are going to abort.
[Tobias]
It's easy to tell where David Mussmann stops irrigating his soybeans. The dryland beans won't make enough money to cover the cost of seed. He's also feeding cattle because his rented pastures are in bad shape, and putting twice as much water on his corn to keep it going. Mussmann says the 2002 drought is terrible - but he's seen worse.
[Mussmann]
In 2000 we was in a pocket here that we just go no rain whatsoever. Actually my crops look better now than they did then.
[Tobias]
By the end of last year Mussmann was in trouble with his lenders. His farm operation - and life - were a mess.
[Mussmann]
I was getting to where I just didn't care. I did what I had to do, nothing was really fun. I think that's part of the depression problem.
[Tobias]
A lot of drought-stricken farmers are dealing with the same problems as Mussmann this summer. A record number of people are calling the Nebraska Rural Response Hotline. More than 700 during the months of June and July alone. Michelle Soll runs the hotline. She says callers are stressed and concerned about finances. Some are asking how to get out of farming. Mussmann knows what this year's callers are going through. He called the hotline last December. They helped him get his finances and life in order, and make his farm operation more efficient.
[Mussmann]
They gave me the tools to work through this thing. I'm not saying I'm going to make it, because nobody has a crystal ball. I don't know if that's going to happen or not.
[Tobias]
One thing is certain - the only real solution to the drought is precipitation. And it's going to take a lot of it to revive the soil, and spirits, of Nebraskans. Reporting for Statewide, I'm Mike Tobias.