Good planning helps recovery from tornado, wind damage

Nearly every year in the upper midwest a number of unfortunate farm families experience the destructive forces associated with tornadoes or high winds. In a matter of minutes, these storms can damage or destroy homes, livestock buildings, storage buildings, windbreaks and grain handling systems that took generations to establish.

Individual reactions to these kinds of losses vary, but many people experience shock and extreme stress, say Larry Jacobson and Kevin Janni, engineers with University of Minnesota Extension.

People need time to go through a grieving process, the University experts say. Even though there is a tendency to repair, rebuild, replant and get on with life as soon as possible, the time shortly following a devastating loss is probably not ideal for making important, long-term decisions.

After immediate personal and family needs are taken care of, the farm family and volunteers helping them can start making provisions for caring for livestock and preventing further loss to salvageable feed, grain and equipment. It might be best to avoid making irreversible decisions. Instead, the engineers suggest trying to do things that will buy time to do the planning and information gathering necessary for making long-term decisions.

The University engineers offer these examples:

< Instead of immediately deciding to sell the dairy cows after the parlor is destroyed, it may be possible to place the cows on other dairy farms temporarily.

< Rather than immediately rebuilding a damaged swine-finishing building on the old
foundation, consider erecting hoop houses or adapting other solid floor buildings.