Local farmers, businesses lose profits due to record
rainfall
Gilroy – Kip Brundage can see into the future – and it ain’t pretty.
The area hay farmer has been monitoring the weather past the Hawaiian Islands and can already see the storms lining up that will hit the Bay Area in upcoming days.
“This is a world event, this is not a local event,” he said, explaining how the storms have been stuck in the same pattern and doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.
And local farmers are beginning to watch their profits fall with the rain.
“We don’t want to see rain anymore. None,” Brundage said. “Too much of anything is bad. The reservoirs are full. The ground is saturated. Now the plants are losing oxygen. We’re sustaining loss all the time.”
Pollination of flowers is down and mold may be starting to form on berries and lettuce leaves, he said.
“It’s affecting everybody,” Brundage said.
Consumers may see a rise in the cost of produce down the line, as well as a drop in quality, he said. And farmers who miss the opportunity to plant, may miss the opportunity altogether and might have to wait until next season.
Last year, he could only harvest five hay cuttings out of a possible seven.
“We should have been able to cut already,” Brundage said. “We’re all going to see a loss, but how much we don’t know.”
But area farmers are not the only businesses suffering with from soggy fields.
For only the second time in 25 years, Don DeLorenzo, Gilroy Golf Club pro and manager, was forced to cancel league golf night Tuesday.
“I’ve never seen it like this,” he said. “I’ve only canceled one league night ever. The thing with golf is – you can’t make it up. This has been the worst winter I’ve seen in 25 years in the business.”
This March set the record for the most rainy days in Gilroy with 23 days, and likely one of the worst financial records for the Golf Course.
According to DeLorenzo, profits are down 65 percent over last March – which was slow due to rain.
“I don’t even have the heart to look at a good March,” he said. “It’s just been so sporadic. We’re getting a few rounds in here or there. Usually you have a couple of days out, but it looks like it’s going to be this way through Easter. All you can do is keep your chin up.”
For the second straight day the course was closed, and the course may be too saturated to play on today, even if it doesn’t rain. As of Tuesday, there has been more than 20.57 inches of rainfall this season.
Rains closed one lane of Hecker Pass Highway after a small landslide occurred Wednesday afternoon.
Coyote Reservoir was expected to spill over as early as Tuesday night, said Santa Clara Valley Water District spokesperson Mike DiMarco.
For the past few weeks, the gates of the Anderson Reservoir have been opened during intermittent breaks in the rains to release water into nearby creeks to make room for additional runoff.
“We’re going to open that back to 500 cubic feet per second, maximum force, tonight,” DiMarco said.
As early as Thursday morning, water district officials predicted the reservoir may spill.
According to DiMarco, while flooding is a possibility, it is not expected.
“We’re all going to have to grow webbed feet,” he said.
