Adding Up Crop Losses From Midwest Floods (2/2)

慢速VOA,听写,英语,VOA ,农业,洪灾

Some farmers may replant corn. Others may replace corn with soybeans. What farmers do now depends partly on the extent of damage to the land. Floodwaters in some areas may contain industrial waste or other harmful substances.

What the weather does during the rest of the growing season will also be important.Rain delays have left soybean planting behind the five-year average in twelve of eighteen major soybean-producing states. Other crops including wheat, rice and oats have also suffered.

In Burlington, Iowa, as many as fifty trains normally pass through the city every day, mostly carrying coal or passengers. But Burlington is quiet now until water is off the rails and workers can inspect for damage. City Manager Doug Worden says Burlington took steps to prevent severe property damage after the record floods of fifteen years ago.

While the Midwest deals with recent flooding, the nation's top agricultural state, California, faces increasingly dry conditions. On June fourth, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought" class="hjdict" word="drought" target=_blank>drought, the first such action since nineteen ninety-one. The order followed two years of below-average rainfall and other limitations on water supplies.

慢速VOA,听写,英语,VOA ,农业,洪灾慢速VOA,听写,英语,VOA ,农业,洪灾