“I’ve never seen hail this devastating”: How local farmers were impacted by recent hailstorm

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) - After a hailstorm that happened on June 6, members of the community have been impacted.

With certain areas reporting hail as big as the size of golf balls, damage was done to many places, including farms. Let Nieslanik, the Owner of Okagawa Farms, said the hail did a lot of damage to their crops.

“We have 200 acres in one section that was completely devastated. It stripped everything. All the leaves were off,” said Nieslanik.

Nieslanik was born and raised in the Grand Valley, and she’s owned Okagawa Farm for 34 years. In that time, she’d never seen a hailstorm like this.

“I’ve never seen hail this devastating with such a wide path. I mean you’ll get spots of hail, but never such a wide path of hail,” said Nieslanik.

Nieslanik said they still need to assess all the damage that was done to the crops. She also said that everything was going to be set back by at least two weeks.

However, farms weren’t the only ones that had damage to their plants. “All of the local gardeners that have, you know, two or three tomato plants and zucchini, all of their gardens are gone. They’ve been coming in steadily and trying to replace the plants,” said Nieslanik.

Nieslanik also talked with a few farmers in the area about the storm. She said everybody in Orchard Mesa was hit by the storm, but the peach and cherry growers she talked to just got rain and no hail.

Despite the situation, Nieslanik is trying to stay positive and look toward the future. “My outlook is hopeful that we will be able to bounce back from this. I don’t know if we can, but we’re going to try,” said Nieslanik.