Wednesday's storm damaged thousands of acres of crops. Thursday was a day to survey the destruction and decide what to do next. 

     In Phelps County, many farmers have experienced total losses. For one local man only 160 of his 900 acres survived. He's been farming since the early 70's and has never seen so much devastation.

     "If you take a count there is one pod on this and that's it." From a distance one might mistake the Paulsen family's field for a wheat field, or maybe something else. "That was a soybean field. It's not rice," said James Paulsen.
  
     That yellow field was once bright green, but the color has faded. This after Wednesday's storm left nothing but shredded stalks. "I'm not really sad. I'm not happy that's for sure, but I don't know how to act. I don't know what to do," Paulsen explained.

     Before this storm he had the same worries every farmer has this time of year. "What in the dickens are we going to do with the corn this fall?" Paulsen puzzled.
 
     Now, that's the least of his concerns. Strong winds and quarter-sized hail plummeted his fields leaving little, if any, crops left to sell. "I've been with the Farm Service Agency over 25 years and I've never seen a storm that has done this much damage in this wide of an area," said Galen Ehrke.
  
     Thousands of acres were hit hard as storms made their way from Gothenburg to Eustis and Elm Creek to Axtell. 
 
     For Paulsen, it's fourth and twenty on his field as he decides what play to call next. "We punt. Yes, we punt. I don't know. I've never been here. I've never been in this situation."

     How much this will cost farmers is unknown. For those, like Paulsen, with little insurance the only thing that will save them is profits from last year's season.

Reporter's Notes by Laurie Dutcher:

Last year was the best year Paulsen ever had as yields and prices hit historic highs.

Only two of Paulsen's fields survived despite being spread across a large area.