Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.08.2010, Page 9

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 1. ágúst 2010 • 9
hail up to my knees,” said one.
The day after Canada Day, an
F3 tornado, packing 300 km
winds, cut a 50 km swath two
kms wide through the Raymore
farming community and the
Kawakatoose First Nations
reserve, destroying houses,
out-buildings, trucks and farm
equipment and tearing out 2.5
km of power lines.
Super-saturated land can’t
absorb any more rain. “There
was a time,” said a Saskatch-
ewan meteorologist, “when we
would have 20 mm of rain and
it would all soak in. Now there
is nowhere for it to go and we
see immediate puddling.”
“I have hilly land,” said
Lori Bonar, whose farm was
hit by the rain and hail. “In the
hollows, it’s damp in the eve-
ning, but in the morning, there
is water running. The water is
leaking out of the hills.”
Lakes are at flood level.
Roads are washed out – a chunk
of the Trans-Canada highway
at the border of Saskatchewan
and Alberta disappeared after a
quiet little creek turned into a
raging torrent that took out the
culvert and the road collapsed.
It was finally repaired, but the
major highway west of Hum-
boldt is still awash in water.
Local traffic is rerouted down
gravel roads and the heavy
stuff is sent to Highway 16, the
alternative Trans-Canada.
Quiet little creeks are in
full flood. “My son called me,”
said Harry Abtosway, who
is 81. “He told me to brace
myself. There was a two-foot
wall of water coming at me
down Milligan Creek.” Named
after the first settler in the
area, Milligan is typical of this
province – flowing through flat
land, it winds back and forth,
twisting in on itself, a little high
in the spring, because of the
snow and the runoff, a narrow
ribbon of water all summer
and fall – except for this year.
Where it crosses Highway 35
between Elfros and Wadena,
Milligan has turned fields into
a flood plain.
Terry Helgason, who farms
south of Elfros, was hit with
hail two inches across on Can-
ada Day. Some of the stones
were baseball-sized. He’s had
19 inches of rain. It’s so wet
he can’t get across his fields
and the rules call for farmers
to keep weeds under control on
unseeded acres. “I hired a high-
wheel sprayer to spray what I
couldn’t do,” said Helgason.
And then he got another inch
and a half of rain.
It isn’t just a concern about
cereal crops – wheat and oats
and barley – or the oilseeds,
flax and canola, he said. It’s
hay. If a farmer wants dry
bales, he needs three or four
days of sunshine to cure it.
That’s not happening this year.
“But if you put it up for silage,
it’s too heavy to lift,” he said.
Local farmers often bag green
bales which turn into silage in
the bag. Try moving it, he said,
“and the tractor drops out of
sight at the front wheels.” He,
too, has seen that “every hol-
low is filled with water because
it is bubbling out of the hills.”
The other problem for cat-
tle men, said Danny Thorstein-
son, is the quality of the grass
that nourishes the animals all
summer. “Grass growth is ex-
tremely good but it is not good
grass,” he said. “It’s water
grass. The moisture content is
so high that every mouthful is
more water than nutrient.” On
the other hand, hay crops are
looking good. But, he says,
“If you can’t get off the main
roads, you can’t get it. Those
bales from last year that weren’t
worth much are looking really
good this year,” he said.
PHoto courtesY terrY HeLgAsoN PHoto: JoAN eYoLfsoN cAdHAM
Right: Terry Helgason isn’t
spending much time with his
tractor this year. It’s too wet
to get onto his fields.
This funnel cloud, photographed from Tuffnell, hit Raymore
farmers and the Kawakatoose First Nations, cutting a 30 mile swath
two miles wide during 30 minutes on the ground.
Continued on page 21
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