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Kansas farmer compares destructive storm to a hurricane

A central Kansas farmer says severe weather that tore through the Central Plains this week was unlike anything he’s experienced before.

“I would maybe compare it more like a hurricane.”  

Greg Peterson farms near Lindsborg and says he was harvesting wheat when the storm hit Monday evening and brought winds in excess of 100 miles per hour and gusts over 140 miles per hour. “We lost power immediately, but we were without power for 3 and a half days. Corn was laying over flat on the ground. It has stood up for the most part. We did lose a shed roof. I haven’t seen any trees throughout the whole county without limbs down.”

He tells Brownfield he already didn’t have high expectations for his wheat crop prior to the storm because of the on-going drought. “We’re just trying to harvest what little wheat is there. Now, it’s getting plastered by these storms. I don’t know if it did a ton of damage to the wheat. It laid it over a little bit, and it’s sure going to lower its test weight.”

He says the crop is not a total loss and should be able to finish harvesting it.

This week’s severe weather outbreak also brought damage to parts of Nebraska, the Dakotas, Missouri, Iowa and the Upper Midwest.

Greg Peterson: