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Exactly one year to the date of\u00a0last year\u2019s severe flooding<\/a>\u00a0in Vermont, Joe\u2019s Brook Farm was flooded again by the remnants of Hurricane Beryl.<\/p>\n This time it was worse. Workers were able to harvest some of the produce before last week\u2019s flooding, but the family-owned vegetable farm still lost 90% of its crop in fields and greenhouses.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we got hit twice on the same day two years in a row it\u2019s pretty hard to recover from that,\u201d said Mary Skovsted, who owns the farm with her husband.<\/p>\n Around the state, and especially in\u00a0hard-hit central and northern Vermont,<\/a>\u00a0farmers are again assessing their losses and trying to figure out how to adapt and make it through the season and next year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to have significant damage,\u201d said Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have areas that have been hit twice maybe three times in the last year.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s hope that some of the feed corn crop for livestock could bounce back but it depends on the weather, he said. Gov. Phil Scott said Friday that he has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to issue a disaster designation for the state, so that federal financial assistance, including low-interest loans, are available to growers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe storm\u2019s torrential rains caused innumerable streams and rivers to flood towns, destroy roads and bridges, inundate farms and ruin crops,\u201d Scott, a Republican, wrote. \u201cMany Vermont farms had not fully recovered from last year\u2019s destructive storms before they were again under water in the middle of Vermont\u2019s short growing season.\u201d<\/p>\n When the state agriculture secretary visited Sparrow Arc Farm, a potato farm on the Connecticut River in Guildhall last weekend, farmer Matthew Linehan had to take him out in a canoe to see the fields still inundated by floodwaters days after the storm. The water has receded and the damage is worse than last year. Nineteen of the farm\u2019s 52 acres were flooded, pushing the total loss to 36%, Linehan said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe crop has just melted into the ground. It\u2019s toast, absolute toast,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Fourteen acres were under 8 feet (2.4 meters) to 10 feet (3 meters) of water, and five acres were under 3 feet (almost 1 meter) to 4 feet (1.2 meters) of water, he said. Last July, they lost 20% of their crop and had to take out loans to cover the losses. They only plant a small percentage of their potatoes on lower land knowing the flood risk, which now is more frequent.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, in my opinion, two years makes a trend and we\u2019re not going to be planting anything down low next year because I am never going to be in this position again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At Joe\u2019s Brook Farm, Skovsted said they made some changes after last July\u2019s flooding. They put in cover crops near the river where the flooding had wiped out valuable field crops last summer. But last week, the flood waters from the river filled the greenhouses full of thriving tomato and cucumber plants. They can\u2019t sell the produce that was contaminated by the flooding but can salvage some growing above that level.<\/p>\n\n\u2018Two years makes a trend\u2019<\/h2>\n