Neighbors helping neighbors is not uncommon in rural areas, but the owners of one local business were reminded Sunday of just how important that neighborliness can be.
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Neighbors helping neighbors is not uncommon in rural areas, but the owners of one local business were reminded Sunday of just how important that neighborliness can be.
When a 75,000-bushel grain bin collapsed at Hoffman and Reed?s Gilman City location Saturday evening, corn spilled across the street to the west, piling up like yellow snow and as high as three feet in some areas. Phil Hoffman, an owner of Hoffman and Reed, Inc., said that while the corn went to the west, the bin fell backward to the east onto the roof of another building. The roof of the bin ?just kind of caved in,? according to Hoffman.
The collapse occurred about 5:30 p.m. and since it was already dark, it was decided to wait until Sunday morning to begin the cleanup.
?We started on Sunday morning and people just started showing up,? Hoffman said. ?We loaded about 12 or 13 farm trucks and most of them stayed all day to help.?
Some of those assisting brought equipment to make the job easier and Hoffman and Reed trucks were also going back and forth between Gilman City and Trenton all day, bringing the corn to storage bins here, although Hoffman said storage space is not plentiful.
By 3:30 p.m., the rain began in earnest and the workers were wearing down after having picked up about 26,000 bushels. It was decided to call it a day and continue when the weather clears a little and less debris will get picked up with the corn.
Hoffman said that without the help of all those who came Sunday, the cleanup would not be nearly as far along.
?If it had just been us, we wouldn?t have been able to get nearly as much done,? he commented. ?But when the customers came in, that was really a big help.?
Hoffman said it is not yet known why the bin split, but the insurance company will have a structural engineer come in to determine the cause. While the collapse has caused a lot of extra work and made for a very short weekend, Hoffman said it could have been much worse.
?We had guys in there Saturday morning. If they had been there when it happened, someone would have probably been killed. You can replace a building and the corn, but you can?t replace a life,” he said.