Manchester Farmer's Crops Badly Damaged After Severe Weather

Farmers are still feeling the effects of Wednesday's storms after hail hammered one tobacco farm dragging down the crops and potentially costing the farmer more than $100,000.

While his tobacco leaves needed the rain, farmer Tony Botticello said what came down next Wednesday afternoon in Manchester cost him thousands of dollars in just a matter of minutes.

"We were going three weeks without any decent rain so it was getting dry," Botticello said.

"It only hailed for about five minutes but it did enough damage. I have about 15 acres of tobacco, it just put little holes in all the leaves and they are useless," Botticello said.

Hail tore through the leaves of his tobacco farm, leaving them too tattered to be sold.

"When the buyer comes around to look at the field he wouldn't want this and he wouldn't buy it, it's junk," Botticello said.

To make it worse Tony had just covered the tobacco plants last week with $10,000 worth of fungicide.

"Now we're going to have to take that hit too," Botticello said.

While he says he had planned to get about $150,000 out of the crop, insurance may only cover part of the damage. Tony knows it's just a matter of time before he'll have to prepare for the next round of weather and what it leaves behind after the smoke clears.

"Farmers are a lot like gambling addicts where we just were going to hit it this year are you know to mean, you win some lose some," Botticello said.

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