News

Precipitation volume too much for the rain gauge

Some parts of eastern South Dakota are cleaning up from rain that in some cases, is hard to measure.

“Our gauge goes to six inches and it ran over,” said Lewis Bainbridge, who farms south of Mitchell, South Dakota. Bainbridge stopped has pickup to describe to Brownfield what he’s seeing while surveying damage from the tornadoes and downpours.

“We have a bridge on kind of a major highway just north of us that is no longer there,” said Bainbridge. “It’s scattered out into one of our pastures.”

Bainbridge recently talked to Brownfield about the wet spring allowing planting on only ten percent of his farm. The crops that haven’t been washed away, he said, look pretty good.

“The obvious question,” he said, “is how to get into the field to harvest it and then how do get it out of the field.”

At 69-years-old, Bainbridge says he maintains a positive attitude from the stories he hears of people offering to help others.

“It’s just wonderful,” said Bainbridge, “that we live in such a very thoughtful community.”