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Crop insurance rates skyrocket after summer floods

FILE - In this Sept. 19, 2011, file photo Rob Chatt sees for the first time the extent of the soil erosion caused to his family's corn fields by the streaming flood waters of the Missouri River, near Tekamah, Neb. Midwestern farmers may be socked with steep increases in their crop insurance premiums, some nearly five times what he paid a year ago, unless levees damaged by last summer's flooding are fixed. The problem is there's not enough money for repairs, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is focusing on fixing those protecting homes and facilities like water treatment plants. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

FILE - In this May 3, 2011, file photo a farm is surrounded by floodwater after the Army Corps of Engineers' blew a two-mile hole into the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri. Midwestern farmers may be socked with steep increases in their crop insurance premiums, some nearly five times what he paid a year ago, unless levees damaged by last summer's flooding are fixed. The problem is there's not enough money for repairs, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is focusing on fixing those protecting homes and facilities like water treatment plants. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

FILE - In this May 3, 2011, file photo water from the Mississippi River floods Missouri farmland Mississippi County, Mo., after the Birds Point levee was intentionally blown up to relieve water pressure around the upstream town of Cairo, Ill. Midwestern farmers may be socked with steep increases in their crop insurance premiums, some nearly five times what he paid a year ago, unless levees damaged by last summer's flooding are fixed. The problem is there's not enough money for repairs, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is focusing on fixing those protecting homes and facilities like water treatment plants. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

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By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, The Associated Press 3:11 AM Wednesday, December 14, 2011

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Midwestern farmers may be socked with steep increases in their crop insurance premiums unless levees damaged by last summer's flooding are fixed.

The problem is there's not enough money for repairs, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is focusing on fixing those protecting homes and facilities like water treatment plants.

Land behind damaged levees can be two to three times higher to insure, adding tens of thousands of dollars to farmers' expenses.

Missouri farmer Ed Marshall says he recently paid $100,000 to insure about 2,700 acres of wheat he planted in the fall and hopes to harvest next spring. The amount is nearly five times what he paid a year ago.

He farms 8,000 acres behind the Birds Point levee that were flooded last summer by the Mississippi River.

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December 14, 2011 08:05 AM EST

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