Exact estimates of the number of acres that were damaged in the latest storm were unavailable because of staff shortages, a Farm Service Agency spokesman said. But the agency does know that about 122,000 or 17 percent of Grand Forks County's crop acres were damaged by storms that hit in late July, and another 147,600 acres or 20 percent of the crops didn't get planted this spring because it was too wet.

Farther south in Traill County, August storms have damaged 56 percent of the cropland, the FSA spokesman estimated.

Damage from hail may be covered by crop insurance, and various government disaster programs may provide some help for farmers who couldn't plant or whose crops were damaged by wind and rain.

Crop damage from the Wednesday night storm appeared to be the most severe in Grand Forks County in an area from several miles north of Gilby to a few miles south of Honeyford, said Kevin Peach, general manager of Farmers Elevator Co. of Honeyford.

The storm cut a swath about five miles wide, destroying about 80 percent of the crops in its path, Peach estimated. Hail and wind stripped sunflowers of their leaves, shelled grain on the ground and sheared off soybeans.

"The soybeans are little sticks," Peach said.

Because it's so late in the growing season, most of the crops probably won't recover, said Ken Nichols, Grand Forks County extension agent. Dollar estimates of the damage from the Wednesday storm weren't available Thursday, but it likely will be more than hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.

"It's definitely another kick that we didn't need," he said.

The losses are especially hard for farmers to swallow because the crops were some of the best they have raised in years, Peach said.

"It's really disappointing," said Judy Fossum, who farms with her husband Darrell west of Gilby. "It was a beautiful crop. They were the nicest ones we've had in years."

About 500 acres, or one-quarter, of the Fossum's crops were damaged or destroyed by the Wednesday night storm, she estimated.

"It's a tough one," said Clark Becker, who farms southeast of Inkster. Wind and hail destroyed nearly 1,000 acres of the crops he and his son, Bradley, farm, Becker said.

"Most places, it sheared them off," Clark Becker said. "It's unbelievable."

Southeast of Inkster, Gilby farmer Tom Brusegaard called the crop damage in his area, will be some losses on the wheat -- the heads are knocked down," Tollefson said.

Tollefson said that only seven-tenths of an inch of rain fell in the area where he lives. That amount of rain, however, was accompanied by a stiff wind.