US (CT): Blizzard causes up to $20 million worth of damage for total of 47 greenhouses

Anne and Joe Duncan didn't dare venture out to the grounds of their nursery, The Salem Herbfarm, during the height of last weekend's blizzard. "All you could hear was the wind whipping, and it was looking strange, but you just couldn't get a good view," Anne Duncan said. She was up all night waiting for the morning light to arrive to get a clear view of the damage the storm may have caused the farm's hoophouses and gutter-connected greenhouses.

The hoophouses had escaped damage, but the weight of the snow had buckled the metal support beams and ripped through the heavy plastic covering of the farm's largest greenhouse.

Damage to the Duncans' farm and others throughout the state prompted a visit Saturday afternoon from U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, who had toured Clinton Nurseries in Westbrook earlier in the day.

"Nurseries and greenhouses took it on the chin from Nemo," Courtney said. "Farming is a risky business, things happen, you can plan and try and sometimes you have no control."

The non-food greenhouse sector is a $1.1 billion state industry, with 3,000 businesses and 48,000 employees, according to a press release from Courtney's office. According to the Connecticut Nursery & Landscape Association, the blizzard caused between $12 and $20 million worth of damage to a total of 47 greenhouses or nursery/farm growers across the state. They include Semkow Farm in Colchester and Canterbury Horticulture.

source:theday.com