USA - Crop losses, power outages enduring woes of storm aftermath

There is no Swiss chard or kale anymore at Beach View Farms in Stafford Township, and nearly 40 percent of its eggplant and pepper crops were wiped out by Tuesday’s storm. And both high tunnels--similar to greenhouses--were destroyed, the plastic shredded and metal bent in half like farmer had never seen before. They lost a lot…they’ve never lost anything like that, noting replacing the tunnels would cost $5,000 apiece when the farm gets the money to fix them. He hopes to salvage the tomatoes.

There is no Swiss chard or kale anymore at Beach View Farms in Stafford Township, and nearly 40 percent of its eggplant and pepper crops were wiped out by Tuesday’s storm, co-owner Chris Adams said. And both high tunnels--similar to greenhouses--were destroyed, the plastic shredded and metal bent in half like Adams had never seen before. “We lost a lot…We’ve never lost anything like that,” he said, noting replacing the tunnels would cost $5,000 apiece when the farm gets the money to fix them. He hopes to salvage the tomatoes. South Jersey’s aches from the massive thunder and windstorm continued Thursday, from trying to save crops to a major effort still underway to restore electricity to thousands of homes in the dark for the third day. Atlantic City Electric spokesman Frank Tedesco said there has been no estimate yet on the cost of the storm damage. Nearly 7,000 Atlantic City Electric customers in Atlantic County--many in the Hammonton area--remained without power Thursday afternoon, part of the 120,000 remaining in the utility’s eight-county coverage area. Outages were scattered through Cumberland (about 800) and southern Ocean counties (about 100), with Gloucester and Camden counties bearing the brunt of electric loss. The utility expects to have power restored to everybody by Sunday. A Haverfield Aviation helicopter, contracted by Atlantic City Electric, has been giving aerial vantage points of the damage, Tedesco said. Mutual assistance crews came as far away as Alliance Power Group in Massachusetts, Liberty Utilities in New Hampshire and J.W. DiDado Electric in Ohio, supplementing Atlantic City Electric, other Pepco Holdings utilities and contractors, Tedesco said. Across power lines, farms and train tracks, the storms’ impacts are still being tallied. The Atlantic City Rail Line to Philadelphia was out of service for the second straight day Thursday. NJ Transit spokeswoman Jennifer Nelson said all fallen trees and debris have been removed from the tracks. But authorities are awaiting power for signals along the tracks where electricity remains out. Then NJ Transit needs to run tests on its equipment before trains resume, she said. Other businesses escaped damage. Back on the farm, Honey & Sweets Farm Stand in Port Republic reported no damage to crops, thankfully, said co-owner Heather Miller. “All the pots and flowers were flying everywhere. But nothing crop wise,” she said. Source - http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/