By Dave Dahl/IRN
Watseka – They’re from the government, and they’re here to help.
Illinois Director of Agriculture Philip Nelson led a delegation to Iroquois County to check out flood damage. 2015 is the wettest year he has seen in the fields, he says.
“Make sure you keep good records,” he says. “Especially, going into harvest, what a particular field yields or doesn’t yield. They’ll start the process with the Farm Service Agency.”
Home, business, and community damage is under the jurisdiction of the USDA Rural Development office, whose Illinois director, Colleen Callahan, found it hit close to home – as she is from that county, from Milford.
“I felt like I was standing in my own back yard,” she said.
Nelson stresses this is almost a statewide crisis, with up to 30 percent of the crops threatened.
The Red Cross has announced it is providing shelter not only in Watseka, but also in Bluffs, in western Illinois’ Scott County. In fact, this is the third incidence of shelter in Bluffs, the Red Cross says.
