Flash flooding wilts dozens of crops in Hardeman County
HARDEMAN CO.,Tenn. — More than a million dollars in damages are estimated in Hardeman County after flash flooding hits onTuesday night. Ray Gilmer owns and operates more than 230 acres of farm land in Hardeman County. Gilmer says several of his fields could be a wash two days after flash floods. “We’ve got a creek that goes through the middle of the place that we have to cross to get to about 100 acres of our farm,” Gilmer said. “It washed out the crossing, so you can’t get to the other side so that’ll have to be fixed.” More than five inches of rain fell in less than four hours on Tuesday. In Bolivar, one of the problems came from the draining system. “Our little town is engineered as good as probably anybody, and we’ve got normally a good storm sewer system that takes care of our run off, but it was not able to handle the amount of water we had this time,” Bolivar Mayor Barrett Stevens said. Stevens says more than a dozen residents have reported garbage and debris in their yards. It’s the farmers taking the hardest hit this time of year. Gilmer is still unsure exactly how much the heavy rain cost him.
