UP OUT OF THE WATER WE TRAVEL BACK TO THE FARM OF MUSKOGEE COUNTY FARM BUREAU MEMBER BRIAN SHEFFIELD TO SEE HOW HE CONTINUES TO RECOVER A YEAR AFTER CATASTROPHIC FLOODS INUNDATED HIS FIELDS AND RESHAPED HIS LIVELIHOOD.
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little over a year after 16 feet of flood water from the nearby Arkansas River covered Brian Sheffield’s Muskogee County farm, crops were once again growing in his river bottom fields, grass was being mowed on the roadside and Sheffield found himself hoping for rain. “It’s feast or famine or flood or drought,” Sheffield said of farming in Oklahoma. “There’s not usually a middle ground. You just got to roll with each one the best you can and make the best of it.” The flood waters that began rising on May 21, 2019, eventually left Sheffield’s farm covered by water for two weeks. When the waters receded enough to get back into the area in early June 2019, Sheffield’s home had been washed away, his farm equipment was scattered and his fields were strewn with debris. Fast forward to the summer of 2020, and you would be hard-pressed to imagine the catastrophe that had taken place just a year before. As the heat of the summer sun beat down on Sheffield’s soybean crop in need of moisture in July 2020, the fact that his fields were once again producing 32 — Oklahoma Country
a crop was a testament to a year’s worth of fixing, cleaning, moving and plain old hard work since the floodwaters receded. But Sheffield was not at it alone. “A lot of work,” Sheffield said of what it has taken to get back in the field. “A lot of teamwork. A lot of neighbors helping out neighbors, helping each other out where we can. It definitely hasn’t been a one-person job, you know. It’s taken different groups of people to help put stuff back together.” All that work allowed Sheffield to plant soybeans, sweet corn, watermelon, cantaloupe and a few tomatoes for the 2020 season. The crops were planted into fields that had to be cleared of debris, sand and everything else the floodwaters brought in a year ago. “It’s changing for the better,” Sheffield said. “Everything is getting better – the ground is getting back into shape, kind of getting equipment back rolling – just slowly putting pieces back together.” Sheffield is still faced with repairs to get all his farm equipment operational. However, it is not just fixing equipment that has taken time and money – the effects