Farmers were some of those hit the hardest from the hail storm Tuesday night. One eastern Nebraska farmer lost all of his crops in just one night.

The worst part of the hail storm lasted only minutes, but for Carter Burenheide his entire planting season has been altered. It was also his first year farming on his own.

“It was about a foot tall and then all of a sudden the hail came through and wiped it out,” Carter Burenheide, the Milligan farmer said.

The 21-year-old has worked along side his grandpa, but this year he decided to take on part of the responsibilities. They saw the storm come in, but didn’t know the extent of the damage until Wednesday morning.

“Pretty devastated to see all my first-year crop with my grandpa gone,” Burenheide said.

“I thought there was maybe hope that some of it would survive, but now things look bleaker,” Dan Vavra, Carter’s grandfather said.

The storm produced quarter to golf ball-sized hail. It damaged not only this area, but areas across central and eastern Nebraska.

“It’s kind of helpful knowing people are going through the same struggle you are,” Burenheide said. “At the same time, it sucks to see everybody else hurt because of something we can’t control.”

Carter does have insurance. He said it’ll cover about 65% of the corn crop and 70% of the soybeans.

“I know it’s going to be tough on him his first year, but we’ll make it work.” Vavra said.

“I had high hopes, but we just have to cut our losses and redo it.” Burenheide said.

The goal is to let the ground dry up, get the seed ordered and get back to planting. This will push the season back about a month with Carter finishing up in late November instead of October.

Source - https://www.1011now.com