Water everywhere

I spent some time yesterday north of Humboldt looking at the greatly expanded lakes, washed out roads and rushing culverts. Thousands of acres of crop land and pasture have been lost to flooding. Some forty year old houses have water problems in their basements for the first time ever. Rural municipalities are fighting with the federal Department of Fisheries over the unwanted water that’s flooding farm fields. Coincidentally, I received an email yesterday from a producer in the Humboldt area who says there are many local situations where more than 30 inches of rain has fallen this spring and summer. He says producers are already preparing to tow out combines which are likely to get mired in mud once the harvest begins. Grain carts are expensive, but in high demand because trucks will have difficulty navigating the soft fields. And everyone is looking ahead to the disaster that could be coming next spring. Given even a normal amount of snow over the winter, where is all the water going to go when the soil is already saturated? I’m Kevin Hursh.