AFSC Reports Devastating Hail Storms Across The Province

Aug 09, 2019

Some crops across the Province didn't stand a chance in the path of devastating hail storms this past week.

Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) Product Coordinator, Zsuzsanna Sangster, says the storm on Tuesday, August 6 caused varying levels of damage, including some crops being wiped out.

"It made a path that was about 22 kilometers wide and 220 kilometers long that moved through Turner Valley, Picture Butte, Taber, Foremost, Lethbridge, High River and parts of Claresholm."

She says they haven't received any crop damage claims from the hail around Calgary, Okotoks and High River yet.

"They have two weeks to get that information into us, and this is for insured producers. There's some producers that are not insured as well, so we wouldn't get a claim, or they're not insured through AFSC."

Sangster says over half of the roughly 400 producers in Taber were impacted by the storm, leaving corn and fresh vegetables badly shredded.

She says up to the beginning of August, AFSC has received 4,200 hail claims this year, which is close to the average hail storms they've seen in previous years.

A hail storm on Saturday, July 27 ran from South of Erskine to Hardisty towards Lloydminster, according to Sangster.

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