OMAHA, Nebraska - Catastrophic flooding on farms in Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska comes just a month before planting season, and in the heart of calving season.
"Fields are not going to be even close to ready. The livestock, it's the season where calves are being born, those baby calves don't know what to do in situations like this and they're swept away by the water." Bill Spiegel, Editor of Agriculture.com tells Scott Voorhees on KFAB-AM 1110 Radio in Omaha.
"I don't think I've seen anything like this in my lifetime anywhere in the world." He said.
Spiegel says the bomb cyclone and the unusually high snowpack that's melting up north couldn't have been predicted, but he says some bad decisions also get blame.
"Man-made things are the biggest cause. Bridges are taken out, levees are taken out." Spiegel said. Along with the heavy rain and snow. "That's why I call it a once-in-a-lifetime series of weather events."
Spiegel says the town of Hamburg, Iowa is one of the towns where levies were torn out, and the town is underwater now. Spiegel says cleanup will not be quick or easy.
"We've got water that's out of its banks in rivers and creeks, that will erode farmland and cut new channels right through prime farmland." He says.
"Then there's the debris. Bridge piers, trees, dead livestock, and who knows what else that will affect these farm fields."
CLICK HERE for Spiegel's article on the Nebraska floods
Photos by KFAB and WHO-TV