Homeowners, both in town and rural, benefit mightily from a successful Cloud Seeding/Hail Suppression program as much as farmers and ranchers do. As it was evident from this summer’s hail damage in Baker, Mont., Killdeer, Crosby, Hillsboro, Bismarck, Lemmon, S.D., just to name a few, home owners can sustain incredible hail damage to shingles, siding, windows, cars, trees, and gardens in just a few minutes. Millions of dollars were paid out by insurance companies to repair that damage this year. The repairs are not all completely free to homeowners, however. Deductibles come right out their pockets and that’s if the insurance companies agree that your shingles are not are depreciated to zero value. If that is the case, homeowners pay it all.
Bryce, I’m sure you’ve not held pillows against windows to keep glass from flying into the house since you’ve moved here or had to cover your roof with tarps to keep leaks from destroying more household property after the shingles have been blasted off. You have been fortunate to have moved to a county that helps to provide a program to mitigate that hail damage. You are also fortunate to have an ongoing Cloud Seeding program that allows year round local radar coverage at the touch of a button. Our radar is real time, right here in Bowman County, not remoted from Bismarck or Rapid City.
Rainfall maps (total rainfall and percent of normal rainfall) have been provided by the Atmospheric Resource Board in Bismarck and show near normal rainfall amounts from April 2016 through August 2016. It sure seemed dry, but we were coming off three years of much above average rainfall. It’s hard to remember just what normal rainfall is and how little rainfall we normally get. I’ve sent you copies of those maps, Bryce, and I hope you can print them for the public to see . Not everyone has the capability to get the Bismarck website to see the maps online. Folks can call me for that address if needed.
This county can use the economic benefits hail suppression can provide. Bowman County has lost several businesses recently and I know we will miss that business activity. Let’s not boot out a program that returns so much benefit for so little cost.
- Bart Fisher, North Dakota
