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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Paul Anderson (R)

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Nasty weather causes havoc in area

Monday, June 24, 2013

By Rep. Paul Anderson

Three straight nights of stormy weather caused lots of problems for many this past weekend. In some areas upwards of seven to eight inches of rain made a mess of fields, with many areas of standing water left after the deluge, especially Thursday night and early Friday morning when most of the rain fell. Our farm had 4.5 inches during that time, but areas to the north and south had even heavier amounts. Reports from the city of Starbuck indicated more than six inches fell during the night, with the roof of the town’s bowling alley caving in, either from all the rain or high winds that ripped through the area.

To the south, in the Benson area, numerous trees were downed, many of which simply uprooted because the ground is so saturated. The beautiful golf course in that city is said to have lost more than 100 trees from the storm. A farm to the northeast of Benson had two 70-foot silos go down from the wind, estimated at over 80 miles per hour. Several turkey barns were destroyed in the area around Swift Falls, which is located in the northeastern part of Swift County. The picturesque park in that small town, hit hard by a tornado just three years ago, was again a target with numerous trees down which forced the park to close. Twisted sheets of pole barn steel were strewn about, and bits of insulation were scattered throughout the area, including the cemetery at the edge of town.

One comment heard several times while visiting with residents over the week end was "the drought must be over!" It’s unusual to have such large areas affected by heavy rain for two or three consecutive nights. We received an additional one inch Friday night and a half-inch during the night Saturday. That was enough to refill low spots in fields that had managed to partially drain from the earlier downpour.

This nasty weather once again illustrates just how much we depend on electricity to power many of the things we take for granted. Running water, pumping fuel, and cooling or freezing our food are just a few of the things that were made impossible by the many downed power lines and poles. We had a crew from Runestone Electric at our farm last Friday, and they worked so quickly and efficiently to get the wires spliced and back up on the poles. These crews work long hours in difficult conditions to get their customers back on-line, and they have earned a hearty "thank you."

The situation in the metro area, with thousands of residents still without power is serious. Downed trees seem to be the biggest cause of outages, and they must be dealt with first before power can be restored. Crews have been brought in from neighboring states to assist with that massive clean-up job.

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The tax on commercial storage, added in the final days of the recently- completed session to the massive tax bill passed by the Legislature, is certainly causing discussion among many business owners in Minnesota. Much of their talk seems to be centered on expanding in other states where there is no such tax on storage fees. I don’t think the ramifications of this new tax were very well thought out, because opposition is strong and would once again make our state uncompetitive with other states in this type of business. The tax is not set to take effect until next April, and my guess is that there will be a serious look at doing away with it before it even becomes effective.

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