Midwest floods may result in rising food costs

Tools

Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (NBC NEWS)- As floodwaters recede, the clean-up begins.

Thousands of homes along the Cedar River in Iowa have spent the last several days underwater.

Now, residents are assessing the damage from what's being called the worst flood in more than a decade.

In places that are beginning to dry out, the flood waters have been replaced by the flow of nervous and anxious survivors.

Everything here is going to take awhile, especially the clean-up and recovery.

Ryan and Michelle Sears live a mile from the river. The water was never supposed to get to their home.

Flood victim Ryan Sears said, "And we came in and I mean I would have been swimming. I would have been completely covered up. I was just devastated."

And now they must begin to assess what the water took away.

"We are out a furnace, a water heater and a washer/dryer, but we are lucky than most people. That's for sure," said Sears.

The luck has run out for a lot of Iowa’s farmers. The top corn producing state in the country now has more than 3 million acres underwater, and that's a crop loss that will affect food prices across the board.

Agribusiness expert Richard Gilmore said, "Feed prices are skyrocketing and that certainly is a pocketbook issue for all of us."

But it's nowhere near the issue those in the soggy heartland are facing.

View comments

The following comments do not necessarily represent the views of NBC Augusta 26 | news, weather, sports, community, entertainment, shopping for Augusta, Georgia. Users have agreed to these terms and in doing so accept full responsibility for their comments. Moderation is limited.

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

WAGT and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. Comments are posted on site immediately and without station moderation. If you feel a comment is inappropriate you may flag it for review. For guidelines on flagging comments see our Terms & Conditions. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

I have read and agree to the terms

Hide comments

More Good Stuff

Advertisement

WAGT Weather

Click here for 7 Day Forecast
Icon
Current Temp 61.0 °F
Mostly Cloudy
More Weather

WAGT Weather

YouNews

This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.

On Demand

NBC Augusta 26 RSS FeedsNBC Augusta 26 Twitter Feed NBC Augusta 26 Facebook Page NBC Full Shows Online

Viewer Poll

What do you think about Tiger's return to golf for the Masters Tournament?

  • Too soon, he should focus on his family
  • He's apologized, it's time for him to return to the game