Last week’s severe storms did some significant damage to grain storage facilities – both on-farm and commercial elevators.
This week, Governor Kelly Armstrong got a close look at that situation.
"The Arthur elevator is trashed," Armstrong said. "The Hunter elevator is trashed. We saw a bin a mile and a half away from a farmstead."
Armstrong said these facilities are likely insured. He said the state – through the Bank of North Dakota – can provide “bridge loans” to get those facilities rebuilt. But he said there also needs to be a sense of urgency, given the fact that harvest is near. Armstrong said the state could work with companies who do storage facilities, to get those projects done sooner. And he said the farmers could help by coordinating their efforts.
"If there3 is some coordination, we have a much more significant chance of getting people who do this work to come and do it, because it's at scale," Armstrong said. "If they're coming up to put 30 of them up, that's a pretty good business model for anyone who puts bins up, versus one-at-a-time, when one person gets an insurance claim, and six weeks later, another person gets an insurance claim."
Armstrong said he has talked with US Agriculture Secretary Rollins about a request for a Presidential disaster declaration.
