'Best case scenario': Boggy Creek Farm expecting relatively smooth recovery after storm damage
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A historic farm in east Austin was not spared from damage brought by severe weather that hit the area Wednesday afternoon, but staff said that, thankfully, the damage the farm did see was "best case scenario."
Boggy Creek Farm took a hit from the storm, which the National Weather Service classified as a long-track microburst associated with a supercell. It brought damaging winds, large hail, and localized flooding to Central Texas.
Mackenzie Bill with Boggy Creek Farm said this wasn't the first severe storm the farm has survived, and it likely won't be the last. But she said Boggy Creek got the "best case scenario, as far as what it hit [and] what it missed."
Bill said the storm hit after hours, and there were no customers on site, so no one was injured. The farm's market was able to reopen for regular hours on Thursday, though cleanup and repairs were being made on the farm throughout the day.
The hoop houses, which are essentially greenhouses used to protect different crops during different seasons, took the brunt of the damage.
"We did take pretty severe damage to our hoop houses, and those serve as our only like protected growing space that we have here on the farm. So that's kind of going to be a big financial sting for us when we kind of get into really the hotter months of the summer," Bill said.
A few large, old trees were also knocked down by straight-line winds, and the customer parking area was "pretty much blocked off" by a large pecan tree that had fallen.
According to KXAN meteorologists, the highest wind speeds were up to 77 mph at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport Wednesday evening.
Bill said when she arrived at the farm Thursday morning at 6, Jack, one of the co-owners, was already out there working on recovery and cleanup.
"I think we're just grateful that it didn't damage any major structures here, and we were still able to have our market open," Bill said.
The farm didn't lose any of its outdoor crops, Bill said, and the hoop houses mostly had vegetation and flowers that were already toward the end of their seasons anyway, and the market wasn't relying on anything inside of them either.
However, Boggy Creek had just finished rebuilding the hoop houses and now anticipates needing a few more months to rebuild them again.
Bill said the farm has received a lot of support, and that community members have reached out and stopped by to offer their help.
When it comes to cleanup and repairs that do need to be made, Bill said the short-term goal is having debris cleared before a big market event on Saturday, and long-term, getting the hoop houses back up and running.
Bill added the farm has seen several damaging storms in the past and noted one in particular that happened in the early 2000s, which caused damage to the historic farmhouse.
"I think just at the end of the day, like, we're just grateful that it's not that bad — not as bad as it was in 2001," Bill said. "But it's definitely, you know, coming here this morning, it was definitely giving like tornado vibes, almost like it was just very kind of just came out of nowhere."