LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — After all the intense weather we've had across the state recently, many people are dealing with damage, even here in central Arkansas.
Farmers are facing some tough decisions after massive hail hit last weekend.
As storms rolled through the state Friday night, baseball-sized hail poured down in Slovak, heavily damaging crops in the area.
"It's not very common to go through that," Farmer Steve Chlapecka said.
Chlapecka said recent storms left him with ruined soybean and rice crops.
"The leaves were all cut off and stems and whole stocks," Chlapecka said.
Some soybeans are already starting to regrow, but others might not recover, causing a setback that puts Chlapecka in a challenging position.
"You try to get to the finish line, and I got to the finish line," Chlapecka said. "Now I have to go back and redo, and I don't like redos."
Chlapecka said he's waiting a few days to see if the beans will survive, but it's still a gamble.
Fortunately, his rice seems to be recovering well.
"We got to have optimal yields and prices to survive," Chlapecka said. "You don't want a crop that won't bring you optimal yields."
He's trying to get insurance to cover some of the repair costs and said he's not sure what the financial impact looks like just yet.
"I am optimistic that things are going to work out for me," Chlapecka said.
And he's not the only one in this position.
Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward said his office is getting a lot of calls from people in similar situations.
"Arkansas is very diverse in our agriculture production," Ward said. "We've seen a little bit of all of it that's had impacts from the storm, and we've had a herd of cattle... that got struck by lightning, so it's really kind of been all over the board on the impacts to agriculture."
Regarding the overall impact on consumers, Ward has some good news.
"The overall cost of food at the grocery store should be relatively minimal, if any at all," Ward said.
Ward said there is help available for producers and farmers with storm damage.
"If someone has a question or needs help navigating that, certainly don't hesitate to reach out to us," Ward said.
Row crop farmers can also receive disaster assistance through the USDA's farm service agency.