Read our Farm Director, Sarah Simon’s personal account of the storm at Common Ground:

At about 4:30 PM on Tuesday May 15th, André, Diana Mae Cowdery and I were out planting in anticipation of the coming rain. Suddenly, the rain started coming heavy and fast, and as the winds picked up we ran for shelter, first to the greenhouse and then, as it instantly became clear that we weren't safe there, we ran over to the barn. As I ran, I watched four massive trees fall right next to our wash station like a line of dominoes.

When we came out of the barn, it was hard to process the devastation that had just occurred. There was an electrical fire on the road beside the property, eerily buzzing and sending off showers of sparks. A car was smashed underneath a tree. And in the distance, we could see the warped skeleton of the high tunnel that we had spent a month building only two years ago. Trees were down across the entire property, and eventually we decided to walk home, leaving our cars behind for the night. As we walked along Route 9D crossing I-84, we realized that the major damage that had occurred had been confined to our area, just north of Beacon, and we later learned that what the National Weather Service had determined: that a macroburst had occurred between Beacon and Wappingers Falls, placing the Stony Kill Farm property right in the middle of the affected area.

We spent the rest of the week cleaning up with the help of many volunteers, who stopped by with tools and time and encouragement. Together we replaced our front gate, repaired shed roofs, demolished one shed and the high tunnel, cut apart the trees that had fallen on our deer fence and repaired the fence. By Friday afternoon, thanks to everyone who came by to help, we were able to get back to some of the farm's regular activities, like catching up on carrot thinning and preparing to plant cherry tomatoes.

One of our fields was completely underwater after the storm, and we are waiting to see how those crops recover. Luckily, our insurance has some coverage for farm products, so we are hoping to recoup some of those losses, and the rest of the fields seem to be recovering just fine.

However, our insurance has no coverage for infrastructure, and so we will need to figure out how to replace our high tunnel. This structure is very important to the farm and to our mission of food access, because it allows the farm to continue growing year-round, providing produce even in the winter. FarmTek has offered us a 35% discount on a new high tunnel, and we are working with them to choose a more wind-resistant model, which will be mounted in concrete for extra durability. We also plan to hire a professional team to build the new tunnel, which will result in a higher-quality structure, free-up our farmers to focus on the vegetable growing during the main season, and enable us to plant into a new tunnel in time to harvest fall and winter greens.

The cost of the new high tunnel will be $8,000 for materials, plus the additional labor cost using a local team of builders will be about 75% of that amount, making our total cost to replace the destroyed high tunnel around $15,000.

Please support us as we get the farm back on its feet. We hope to emerge from this setback more resilient than ever! As many of you know, each year half of our produce is distributed to local food pantries, soup kitchens, and mobile markets that we run in Beacon and Newburgh, along with public schools and school garden programs. Your support truly matters as we work to make the farm as efficient and productive as possible in order to transform the food system as a whole.