Farm safety experts share tips for recovering from flooding

AgriSafe Network illustration highlights several health and safety risk factors that cold-weather floods can cause around the farm. Click the image to enlarge it.

Last year's record flooding devastated crops across the Midwest, and this spring is looking pretty soggy too. But damaged or prevented crops aren't the only problems cold-weather floods can cause, according to AgriSafe Network farm safety experts Linda Emanuel and Ellen Duysen, who spoke recently at the 2020 Nebraska Women in Agriculture Conference, Lori Potter reports for the Kearney Hub in Nebraska.

Emanuel is a farmer and registered nurse, and Duysen is the coordinator and outreach specialist for the Central States Center of Agricultural Safety and Health in the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Public Health.

After a flood recedes, farmers and rural residents often must contend with infections from poor sanitation, toxic mold, respiratory issues, contaminated water wells, E. Coli-related intestinal problems, and stress, they told conference attendees. It's also important to pay attention to mental health in the wake of a disaster, Emanuel said, since poor health and nutrition, lack of sleep, weather worries, finances, and isolation can all contribute to stress, Potter reports.

Duysen advised attendees not to wait for a flood to test their private wells, and said that more than 80 percent tested at any time are contaminated, She also advised attendees to make sure they had family and community response plans in place for future floods, Potter reports.