“When something like this hits, it’s easy for farms to take
a backseat, with so many issues in town,” Emanuel says. “It’s
amazing anyone would come so far to help us.”
The Ohio volunteers brought four Gators to access the
saturated fields. “They spent a lot of time in pastures along the
Platte River to see if fencing could be salvaged,” he says.
A broken levee 1½ miles west of Greg Beebe’s farm had
ruined center pivots and unleashed debris. “We didn’t real-
ize how much we needed a little help until this Ohio group
showed up,” he says.
FFA alumni grilled burgers for the Ohioans at Frontier
Co-op, and area farmers hosted them at Leroy’s Steakhouse.
“We had lots of farming conversations,” Emanuel says. “We
compared yields, practices, and property taxes.”
The local Boy Scout troop provided lunch on Sunday, and
the Ohioans headed home later that day.
“We have to take care of each other, especially in agricul-
ture,” Rose Hartschuh says. “Farmers are farmers no matter
where you go. They said we gave them a jump start on the
cleanup and hope for tackling the work.”
Heavy lifting ahead
I
n the early days of the flooding, Linda Emanuel, Jordan’s
mother who is also a farmer and an AgriSafe Network com-
munity health nurse, waded the streets, going door to door to
see what residents needed. She supplied personal protective
equipment kits to volunteers through the Central States Center
for Ag Safety and Health in Omaha. “The mental health stress
has come in waves,” she says.
She adds, “We learned how strong we are and how much
heart our community has. Prom did happen, and it was what
our community and high school students needed. Everyone
just wants to get back to some normalcy.”
At home in Ohio, Rose and Greg Hartschuh washed away
visible remnants of their trip. “We brought home a lot of
Nebraska mud,” she says.
The Ohioans also brought home enduring memories: the
blood, sweat, and tears of farmers faced with unimaginable
loss and their grit to persevere. “North Bend was a place on a
map,” Rose says. “Now it’s a place in our hearts.”
‘A PLACE IN OUR HEARTS’
VOLUNTEERS FROM OHIO MAKE THE TREK TO
NEBRASKA TO HELP FLOODED FARMS.
O
n a chilly Saturday in late March, North Bend Central
High School juniors worked frantically to finalize
prom decorations in the gym – an ordinary rite of
springtime. At the same time, at the other end of the
building, volunteers were scrambling to accomplish
the extraordinary.
Flooding had submerged this town of 1,200 about 50
miles northwest of Omaha, Nebraska, two weeks be-
fore 30 volunteers from Ohio’s Rural America Relief
(Ohiosruralamericarelief.wordpress.com) arrived with supplies
for the massive farm cleanup.
Sycamore, Ohio, farmers Rose and Greg Hartschuh orga-
nized the initiative. “We watched videos of the Bomb Cyclone
of snow and rain, ice jams, and flooding,” she says. “We saw a
lot of people hurting.”
The Hartschuhs had been moved to action in 2017 when
wildfires in Kansas and Oklahoma devastated farmers. Now
incorporated as a nonprofit, their organization reassembled
farmers and agribusiness employees, and added six volunteers
from the Wynford FFA Chapter in Crawford County.
Ten drop-off donation locations were set up across Ohio,
and cash gifts were accepted to cover the group’s travel and
lodging.
When the 10-truck Ohio convoy arrived after a 16-hour
drive, farmer Jordan Emanuel and FFA adviser D.J. Mottl met
them to unload and stack supplies. “They had almost anything
we’d need – hay, feed, gates, T-posts, barbed wire, chain saws,
power washers, even portable bunks,” Emanuel says.
Lending a hand
A
lthough the devastation in town was obvious, farmers were
reeling from the impact of flooded homes, grain bins, closed
roads, washed-out bridges, and the needs of hungry livestock.
The Ohio volunteers fanned out to eight farms.
bonus Successful Farming at Agriculture.com |August 2019 Photography: Matt Reese, Ohio’s Country Journal
left to right: Fred Durant, Matt Dauch,
and Derek Looker stand next to a
trailer of donated hay bales.
FFA students Joel Griffin and
Ethan Hall unload supplies.
f l o o d s
By Cheryl Tevis
