Aug 21, 2017
True Blue Farms recovers from 2016 tornado damage

A year after a tornado ripped through True Blue Farms, facilities have been rebuilt and the farm has had a good crop. On Aug. 20, 2016, co-owner Shelly Hartmann and workers were working in the farm’s processing plant when an EF-1 tornado hit. While the damage hampered the farm’s fresh program, Hartmann had another facility in which the farm could relocate packing and storage.

WOOD TV8 caught up with Hartmann.

“You could see it like black and grey with building debris and tree limbs and leaves and everything just kind of swirling around in there,” said Shelly Hartmann, who owns True Blue Farms with her husband, Dennis. “I’m like, ‘Tornado!’”

Within an instant, crops, buildings, cars and equipment were destroyed, causing millions of dollars in damage.

Hartmann walked through a new, large facility that cools and freezes fruit. It had to be rebuilt after the tornado.

“All the buildings can be replaced, the equipment can be replaced, we can rebuild, we can grow more blueberries, but the people’s lives were what truly mattered, and that was the take away from all of it, nobody was hurt,” she said.

Click here to read more on how True Blue Farms bounced back from the tornado damage.




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