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Texas Agriculture Archive

August 2, 2002

From Drought to Flood...
The Summer of 2002

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By Lana Robinson
Field Editor

More than 30 inches of rain fell in parts of South Central Texas—inflicting serious damage to crops and farm assets— the second week of July in a storm that even caught the weather experts offguard.

"That system was a very strange upper atmospheric storm that drifted out of Georgia into Texas," George Bomar, state meteorologist, said in late July. "No one forecast that. Something like that cannot be foreseen. It was a very, very unusual weather event, and it lingered for two weeks. None of us were forecasting above normal rain for July."

According to Bomar, the flooded regions—primarily the Texas Hill Country and the Big Country—got more rain in four days than the first six months of the year.

A total of 34 Texas counties were granted a federal disaster declaration as a result of the severe storms and flooding, which actually began June 29. At press time, damage assessments continued in counties previously requested by Governor Rick Perry for a federal disaster declaration. Counties awaiting addition to the federal list by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) included: Bastrop, DeWitt, Dimmitt, Edwards, Hidalgo, Lavaca, Llano, Val Verde, Victoria and Williamson.

"I look for August to be dry," Bomar predicted. "The one complicating factor, when you go forecasting this time of year, is you never know what's going to come out of the tropics. I expect little or no rain unless something from the tropics enters the Gulf and makes landfall in or near Texas."

Hill Country hit hard

District 10 Cooperative Extension Director Darrell Dromgoole of Uvalde directs activities in counties that were smack dab in the middle of the flooding.

"Everybody pointed to the '98 flood as the `Flood of the Century.' Actually, this one was more widespread," Dromgoole noted. "The Hill Country got a lot of rain, and it moved down into the I-35 corridor, in Hays County and around New Braunfels. Bandera and Medina counties suffered lots of flood damage, especially Bandera. The Medina, Guadalupe, Comal, San Marcos, and San Antonio rivers were all involved. Floresville suffered a lot of damage."

According to Dromgoole, crops were hurt and economic losses far outweighed any benefit the rainfall may have delivered to cattlemen, who were short of pasture, and forage producers.

"There was a great deal of fence damage across the district. Economic losses due to that have not completely been calculated. We lost some farm buildings, some equipment, some fences. Reports of livestock losses were not large, although there were some, but nothing like we saw in '98. The pastures, were certainly in need of moisture. There were a lot of tanks dry, and they have filled up across the district, but it would have been much better over a long period of time. The crop situation is another matter," he said. "The harvest has been delayed because of wet field conditions. A lot of crops were certainly waterlogged. The quality is not near what it would have been had it not been waterlogged for such a long period of time. The timing of the rain was just terrible. It looks like it was way too late for any of our row crops to benefit from it, and it hit right at harvest time. It certainly affected yield and quality, especially the cotton."

Dromgoole said with follow-up rain, the deep moisture should benefit small grains and winter pastures this fall.

"This year will go down as a year that had way above average moisture in July, yet we were still suffering from a drought," he added.

Jose Peña, Extension economist, also stationed in Uvalde, said the cantaloupe harvest was two-thirds complete in Uvalde County when rains forced producers out of the fields. The remaining yields will be lost by the time producers are able get back, he said.

Coastal Bend resumes harvest

On July 21, Cooperative Extension Agent Harvey Buehring reported on the aftermath of the flooding in Nueces County.

"Actually, some of the first corn, the earlier maturing, was harvested today," said Buehring. "A number of crews are poised and ready, waiting for the ground to dry up more. On the cotton, some of the fields were defoliated between rainy days last week. There's a lot more defoliating work being scheduled this week. If we get a return to more typical July weather, with hot and sunny conditions, a lot of harvest crews will be working in many fields over the weekend."

Buehring said the sorghum harvest was 95 percent complete, with only a few wet fields remaining.

"Our corn crop got a coffin nail back in March without any rain. It's one of those situations where we got a decent stand on early planted corn and what survived the frost in March, and it's struggled ever since it was hit with freezes. It's a weak nubbin crop. It looks worse now than it did. It was dry. Now, after two weeks of rainy weather, it's a black, wilted mess and the weeds and grass are trying to overtake it, not to mention degradation in quality that might have occurred...We're just glad we don't have more than 25,000 acres," Buehring observed.

The Extension agent said the county's cotton season, like the sorghum, had been drawn out due to inclement weather.

"We had a wide range of planting dates this year, due to marginal planting conditions. What's being harvested is stuff managed to escape early freeze and didn't have to be replanted. We have probably 30,000 to 40,000 acres of replanted cotton that still has a ways to go. It should be 10 percent open this coming week; the early-planted cotton is 80 percent," he said.

Buehring said some degradation had occurred, with light spot grade in some of the early cotton crop.

Nueces County cotton farmers planted some 124,000 acres, which due to a dry planting period and lack of timely rains in May, had limited yield potential. Even so, Buehring said he expected that a good many fields would yield a bale to the acre or slightly over.

"Cotton, once again, has proved its value as a dry, hardy crop. We had deep moisture and the crop followed it down and held up pretty well," he said.

Buehring said until recent rains, local hay supplies were essentially depleted. Many area producers culled cows, reduced breeding stock and sold off calves at a lighter weight this spring.

"We've had a miraculous transformation in our pasture situation. It's gone from a virtual desert to a virtual garden. It's good to know it can happen that fast," he said.

Victoria County still saturated

Harvesting had just begun in Victoria County when the storms arrived. On July 21, Victoria County Extension Agent Joe Janak said the ground was still "super-saturated," preventing the harvest from resuming, and it was too early to say exactly how big a blow the untimely rain had dealt.

"A lot of this corn should have been out already," said Janak. "We need it to quit raining for about three weeks at a minimum. It's been about a week since it quit. Water is standing in the rows. A few farmers are mudding it out. Overall, they're waiting to see if they can get in. They may try to start up late this week again. One or two farmers are talking about buying large flotation tires and go in. I don't know if they actually did. One of them said it was going to cost him $17,000."

Janak said a handful of farmers that farm in the bottom land adjacent to the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers were affected by the 10 inches of rain that fell there.

Janak said he had heard rumors of aflatoxin found in some of the corn, but could not confirm how widespread it was, and said they would not know until farmers could get back into their fields. Victoria County farmers had planted some 36,000 acres of corn, according to Janak.

"Normal yield here is 90 bushels of corn, with a 70-100 bushel range. This year, the average will be around 55-60 for the county, with a range of 40-90 bushels," he said.

Area farmers planted 16,000 acres to sorghum. Janak said he expected some areas would reach 5,000 lb. sorghum yields.

"It's still pretty good if we can get in and harvest it all. A lot of sorghum was planted late because of the drought. We didn't have a lot pushing. A little sprouted. The highest I've heard was probably a loss of 500 acres that sprouted on the ground, or fell to the ground. Again, on the sorghum issue, it was just getting ripe. The rains quit just in time. We were maybe a day late on a couple of fields. We've had a little lodging—more than we'd like to see, not only on sorghum but corn, too. Also, charcoal rot is setting in."

Some 13,500 acres of cotton was planted in Victoria County in 2002, and the crop was progressing nicely when the rain dumped on it.

"We had a tremendous crop load on our cotton prior to the rains. A lot of that fell. A lot of bolls and squares dropped with the rains. I still think the cotton crop will make a bale or maybe better," said Janak.

The rains really perked up the county's soybean crop. The early planted beans endured a period of drought, resulting in low yields. However, the weather hit just right for those planted later, the county agent noted.

"That may be the bright spot in all of this, the late-planted bean crop. Looks like a good yield," he said.

The 2002 Flood
Good or Bad?

It all depends on your perspective. If you happened to own land near a river or stream (above, left), such as this creek in Jim Wells County, you'd probably say bad. But if you ranched right down the road (above, right), on higher ground, the rains turned drought-stricken pastures around and into a green paradise. Livestock producers generally applauded the rain, while crop producers couldn't have seen it come at a worse time. The scene was repeated all across Central and South Texas as two weeks in July saw tremendous amounts of rain, causing millions of dollars in damages.

Within a two week period, pastureland in the Hill Country and much of South Texas turned into a green paradise.

Cotton damage (left) was unknown in Nueces County at press time, while an already hammered corn crop (right) was dealt further blows.