Bust for some, boon for others

By Teri Finneman, The Forum
Published Wednesday, June 15, 2005

The owner of Servicemaster in Moorhead said Tuesday that he had received about 50 calls within 48 hours to combat water-damaged property in the area after days of excessive rain.

"It's overwhelming. You can only get to a handful of them, a dozen or so, properly. It's just too many," he said.

The business does water and fire damage restoration in residential and commercial settings, as well as carpet upholstery cleaning.

Employees have been working from 7 a.m. until midnight for the past three or four days, he said. Most of the calls are from south Fargo residents.

"Our phones have been ringing pretty steadily," she said.

Other businesses have found themselves at more of a standstill until the rain clouds pass by.

Northern Improvement Co. Engineer Greg McCormick said construction workers planned to do a concrete pave Monday near 13th Avenue South and 45th Street in Fargo, but they were rain-delayed.

"Certainly we've got a decent amount of our workers not getting the hours in that they usually do this time of year," McCormick said.

"We will have to make up for these down weeks somehow," he added.

Terry Welle said his Fargo construction business has been forced to slow down.

"We have to wait for it to dry up some," he said. "It's Mother Nature. You can't control it, so you just have to deal with it."

Rick Newman, who farms near Clifford, N.D., said 20 percent of his acres are still unseeded due to excess water. He doesn't yet know how much damage was done to his seeded crops.

"I think just about everybody in this part of Traill County is going through the same thing," he said. "Everybody's got a little piece of the misery, that's for sure."

It's a pretty grim situation, said Gary Nelson, state director of the North Dakota Farm Service Agency, who toured the region on Tuesday.

"We're trying to see what things we can do to try to give producers a hand at this point," he said.

The economic impact is still being assessed, Nelson said.

Barnes County extension agent Randy Grueneich said the biggest impact is going to be the fields that are too wet to be planted.

In the southern half of Grand Forks County, farmers may not be able to plant as much as half of their fields, said Duane Berglund, an agronomist at North Dakota State University.

About 25 percent of the cropland in Traill and Steele counties, about 10 percent in Cass County and about 5 percent in Richland County could remain unplanted this year, North Dakota State University Extension agents said.

Some small grains and corn planted before rain began driving farmers from their fields are showing signs of stress, Berglund said.

The heavy rains also are preventing farmers from controlling weeds and have increased the risk of crop diseases, he said.

Farmers had to plant soybeans, sunflowers and some other late-season crops by June 10 to take advantage of the best crop insurance protection. Their insurance coverage declines the later they plant after June 10.

Readers can reach Forum reporters Teri Finneman at (701) 241-5560