Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Debby hit Pennsylvania’s Tioga County especially hard.

Karl Kroeck — who grows corn, soybeans and grain on his 1,000 acre farm — is part of the cleanup and relief effort.

“Westfield, Pa., is really devastated,” he said. “There’s going to be some pretty large economic impacts.”

Three days after the Aug. 9 deluge, grocery stores remained closed, the local feed mill was inoperable and may not reopen, and Kroeck was helping fellow farmers in need.

Of his 500 acres of corn, Kroeck said 50-100 was knocked down with flood trash, as well as 20 acres of soybeans. But some farmers lost entire soybean fields to mud and debris.

“I even have an export trailer in one of my fields,” he said. “I don’t know where that came from.”

The heavy rain arrived Friday morning.

“Liberty Borough flooded first, maybe around 11, there was standing water in the borough,” said County Commissioner Marc Rice. “By noon, 12:15ish, significant flooding was experienced along the 49 Corridor from Elkland all the way to Westfield, into Potter Brook.”

Tributaries swelled quickly, causing significant crop damage. It seemed like water rose to flood level in about a half hour, Rice said. Some animals were lost as well.

“Friday was really emergency response,” Rice said. “We had people on the roofs of their homes. We got those folks rescued, and Saturday we kind of shifted from response to recovery and started getting resources out to folks.”

Bridges were damaged or closed, and about 24 people needed to be sheltered in Wellsboro, Rice said.

According to PennDOT, multiple bridges are a "total loss" and will require full replacements. Those bridges are Route 14 over Trout Run in Lycoming County and Route 4001 over Potter Brook and Route 4007 over North Brook in Tioga County.

Since the rain dispersed, Kroeck has been on the phone, helping with food donations. He’s also distributing donated bales to farmers who lost their hay supply.

Contractors are giving time and skill to the cause, Rice said, and residents throughout the region are chipping in with water, canned goods and cleaning supplies.

“Cars were pulling in with things to donate, and instead of taking them into the building, they were just putting them in the car behind them,” Rice said. “The community has been great to help these folks out.”

County and state level disaster declarations have been made, and Rice said a federal declaration is in the works.

“We’re going to clean up the mess,” Kroeck said. “We’re just trying to get organized for the ordeal that’s going to last for months.”

Source - https://www.lancasterfarming.com