Aug 3, 2015

BREAKING: Northwest Michigan assesses storm impact

Agricultural businesses were busy assessing storm damage Aug. 3 to orchards and packinghouses following strong thunderstorms overnight in the Grand Traverse region of northwestern Michigan.

Tom Berg, director of marketing for the Shoreline Fruit cooperative of growers, which has 6,000 acres of orchards and typically harvests more than 25 million pounds of Montmorency tart cherries each year, said the company was struggling with power outages as it determines how the storm would impact its operations.

“We are still assessing the damages to both the orchards and our production and process facilities,” Berg said. “The power outages are having an impact on our abilities to process the cherries. We are waiting to have a better estimate on the utility repair timelines to be back up to full production.”

Growers with significant damage are encouraged to contact their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office or the Grand Traverse FSA office at 231-941-0951 ext. 2. The FSA is a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and has a number of programs that offer disaster relief. Growers enrolled in the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) program and who had damage are also encouraged to contact their local FSA office to report it now.

According to the Traverse City Record-Eagle, more than 30,000 customers in the Grand Traverse region continued to be without power at midday as crews scrambled to rebuild downed power lines and clear trees from roadways after the strong thunderstorm swept through the area.

Grower Travis Bratschi described for the newspaper devestating damage wrought by the storm that swept through the region Sunday. He estimates the storm shredded his Williamsburg orchard to the tune of a 95 percent loss after hail punctured apples, ripped bark off trees and shredded leaves.

It’s especially hard to stomach after two tough winters that reduced yields.

“Now this,”Bratschi said. “It takes the wind out of your sail.”

Some cherry farmers were done picking fruit by the time the storm hit, but others had nearly a week of harvesting left, said Nikki Rothwell, coordinator of the Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Center in Leelanau County. Wind blew much of that remaining fruit clean off the branches, leaving some farmers with little left to harvest.

“It’s just heartbreaking to see it happen this late in the season,”Rothwell said. “They’ve already put so much time and energy and love in getting the crop where it is. To see it lost now is just heartbreaking.”

Weather damage was widespread, but its severity varied by location. Brian Altonen, of Altonen’s Orchards, saw that firsthand.

He has two orchards — one in Kewadin, another a few miles south of Elk Rapids. The northern farm saw little damage, while wind and hail hit the southern farm hard.

“It was an unbelievable scene right here when it came through,”Altonen said, referring to his southern orchard. “Just flying limbs, a few of the trees got uprooted, two of my trellises blew over and took (out) whole rows.”

Altonen finished harvesting his cherries late last week. He estimates he lost 20 to 25 percent of his apple crop. His pears fared well, since they haven’t softened yet.

Lynn Bakker, of Bakker’s Acres in Suttons Bay, said hail damaged some of her apple crop, although she considers herself lucky compared to some harder-hit neighbors.

“We didn’t have major damage, but we did have a little bit of hail. We had some trees tipped down,”she said. “Our neighbors had a lot of hail and a lot of trees tipped down. It kind of depends on where you are.”

Farmers can’t sell hail-damaged apples on the fresh market, where they garner the highest price. Bruised and punctured apples are sometimes sold to processors to be made into juice and other apple products. Some fruit is too damaged to be harvested.

Vineyards likely are in for another poor year, said Erwin ‘Duke’ Elsner, small fruit educator with the Michigan State University Extension. He surveyed grapes at the research center on Monday afternoon and said storms damaged about half the fruit, shredded leaves and broke some support wires.

“In the grapes, we have a tremendous amount of hail damage here,”he said. “It’s going to be one of those things that’s really spotty. It’s going to take a while to assess the level of damage.”

The storm’s severity caught many by surprise. Chris Alpers, of Redpath Orchards near Leland, said he called crews out of the orchard Sunday at 11 a.m. when he realized the weather was turning sour.

“We got everyone safe literally as the winds went crazy here,”he said. “I went back up to the orchard to make sure everyone was in, and there were trees snapping alongside my truck. I’ve lived in east Leland my entire life, and I’m 32, and I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Farmers face a lot of cleanup, as many orchards are littered with branches and downed trees. Rothwell encouraged apple farmers to prevent further damage by spraying for fire blight, a bacterial disease that infects trees and ruins fruit. Trees wounded by hail are especially susceptible to the disease.

Bratschi sprayed his orchards Monday, an effort to protect them from disease that could follow the devastating storm. He can’t count on insurance to ease the pain of losing so much of his crop because his young orchard hasn’t produced enough fruit in past years to qualify for insurance.

This was supposed to be the year.

“I basically have no insurance,”Bratschi said. “It’s ‘lick your wounds’ and hope for a better year next year.”

Wind speeds topped out at 90 miles during the calamitous thunderstorm that cut a path of destruction through the Grand Traverse region.

Widespread, straight-line winds blew at between 60 and 80 miles per hour in most areas during the Sunday evening storm system, but some localized gusts topping out at 90, said Matt Gillen, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

High winds wreaked the most damage starting in Glen Arbor and continuing on a line due east to northern Traverse City and the base of Old Mission Peninsula.

The conditions that led to the storm system started when a warm front swung through the region from the south Sunday morning, Gillen said. That system “primed”the atmosphere with instability that turned into Sunday afternoon’s devastating weather when a cold front descended from the north.

Precipitation totals, including accumulation from pebble-sized chunks of hail, ranged between 1 to 2 inches across northern Michigan, with Alpena seeing the highest total of about 2.7 inches, Gillen said. Cherry Capital Airport saw about .7 inches accumulate, Gillen said.

The newspaper reported commuters and homeowners across the region awoke Monday morning to downed power lines and blocked roadways while utility crews and emergency personnel continued to cut through the detritus left in the wake of a strong thunderstorm that bashed a line stretching from Lake Michigan’s shore east for nearly 100 miles.

The line of storms pushed strong straight-line winds that toppled trees and damaged property. Officials are sure where the strongest gusts occurred, but have not yet determined how stiff those winds were.

“We’ve got a team going out toward Traverse City later today,”said Kevin Farina, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

The team of experts will make their way from the Weather Service’s Gaylord office to Glen Arbor where they will inspect storm damage to determine a peak wind speed in that area. The two hardest hit locales in the Grand Traverse region were Old Mission Peninsula and Glen Arbor, Farina said.

“They will look at tree damage, the type of trees, and were they snapped or pulled out of the ground?”Farina said. “Probably much of the damage yesterday was 60 to 80 mph winds.”

Damage becomes much more significant once wind speeds peak above 80 mph. Farina said. Meteorologists did not see indications of a tornado on radar images they observed Sunday afternoon, but want to take a closer look, he said.

Grand Traverse County road crews started logging overtime last night, and continued to work through this morning as they assessed damage and cleared downed tree limbs from roadways.

Crews will prioritize moving downed branches and trees that did not affect power lines off roadways first as they wait for utility crews to turn off downed lines near the remaining falling limbs, said Road Commission Manager Jim Cook.

Peninsula Drive remained closed to all traffic today as fire and utility crews work to clear some of the area’s most devastating storm damage.

Peninsula Township fire crews started their work Sunday at about 5:30 p.m. after the massive storm system rolled across Old Mission Peninsula and ripped apart docks, knocked down trees and damaged homes.

Many remained without power Monday morning but crews managed to open most roads, except for a long stretch of Peninsula Drive south of McKinley Road.

Randy Rittenhouse, Peninsula Township assistant fire chief, said the peninsula’s western shore near McKinley Road particularly was hit hard by the storm.

– Gary Pullano