20,000 acres of agriculture damaged in Monterey County after storms

SALINAS, CALIF. (KION-TV)- Local farmers are glad that water came into the Central Coast but at what cost? Executive Director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau Norm Groot gives some insight.

“We’re estimating at this point anywhere from 20,000 acres up, maybe impacted at this point,” Groot said.” And that could be anywhere from 40 to $50 million.”

There are some areas of land where flood waters are still lingering. On Hilltop Road, it looks a lot different from what we showed you last week. 

But across the way, water is still hanging around. According to CEO Seth Karm, some farms like Salad Savoy were fortunate not to see their land suffer like this. 

“We were able to get enough space in between that we do have really good soil down there,” Karm said. “So it was draining off. You definitely got a little bit of water in the soil, but it wasn't resting the furrows.”

Seeing how big the storm would still bring nerves when it started.

“Oh no, I was, I was definitely nervous,” Karm said. “It was like when you see the atmospheric river storm like when we had that obviously, you know, was it last year, the year before, and you know, you know what the saturation rate of your soil is. But you just don't know. I mean, I don't know how many inches it's going to bring. I don't know if it's going to be eight inches over a storm. Is it going to be in inches in one day?”

Fortunately, the Farm Bureau says most of the flooded areas did not have crops. For those that did, they’re gathering all that information to see what items were impacted.

A survey is available for those impacted by the 2023 Winter Storm Atmospheric Event. You can view that here.

State and local teams continue to look at storm damages in areas impacted by flooding in Monterey County.