Governor John Lynch's office says federal officials have changed their minds about approving disaster aid for Merrimack and Strafford counties affected by last month's tornado.
The two counties had been left out of the original aid declaration, despite being included in the Governor's request.
They join Belknap, Carroll and Rockingham counties which had already been declared eligible for public assistance.
That tornado killed one woman and damaged more than a hundred homes when it ripped through the Granite State nearly four weeks ago.
It took 40 seconds for it to decimate the Deerfield nursery that Leslie and Peter van Berkum had spent 20 years building.
Now they're up and running again, but their business will never be the same.
NHPR Correspondent Elaine Appleton Grant visited the nursery to see how it was faring three weeks after the storm.
She files this report.
JESSICA.FIX.BABIES IN: 0:47 You just pop the plants that are still growing, right into the new tray with some new soil, just like that! OUT 1:00
VO1: How do you recover from a tornado?
At the Van Berkum Nursery in Deerfield, it has come down to this: saving thousands of plants one delicate seedling at a time.
Plant propagator Jessica Wells sits at a low table, scooping one lacy, half-inch geranium after another into new seed trays.
JESSICA.FIX.BABIES IN 1:08 (ELAINE) What do you think about the prognosis? (JESSICA) I think they’ll be fine. OUT 1:13
VO2: It’s been more than three weeks since a tornado ravaged this 8-acre nursery, and things here are, well, fine.
They’re back to normal – whatever normal is now.
Leslie and Peter Van Berkum have told the story again and again, of how the tornado transformed more than 500 towering pine trees into twisted, splintered toothpicks.
It scrambled thousands of plants, crushed pots and tore electrical wires.
And it flung one terrified employee out of his golf cart, 50 yards into the woods.
LESLIE4 IN: 1:03 It was so dark and at that point
everything broke loose, everyone was shouting and yelling for everybody to get in and I sort of don’t remember much, except that I do remember at that point we didn’t know who was in the barn, and so we grabbed the time cards and we went through the time cards and there was just one time card in my hand at the end, and it was Travis Bibeau, and it was just the most sinking feeling I’ve had in my whole life I think, just knowing that he’d been outside and I didn’t know what had happened to him. OUT 1:34
VO3: With a sprained back, Bibeau scrambled out of the woods towards safety.
LESLIE1 IN: 7:17 He jumped over fallen trees and sparking live wires and I don’t think he realized until afterwards how dangerous it was. OUT 7:24
VO4: That Travis Bibeau survived was their first godsend.
The second was the volunteers – hundreds of them, from neighbors and friends to the electrician, the arborist, the water guy, and four logging companies.
Most simply showed up the next day – some with giant cranes, dump trucks, a Bobcat -- ready to make the Van Berkums’ world right again.
Judy Bush was among them.
BUSH.LUNCHES IN 1:14 My husband and grandson who’s twelve and son-in-law all worked over there for the day. And one of the needs that they had was to feed the volunteers. So we rallied and kept lunches going for four days over there. OUT 1:28
VO5: It’s hardly the first time Judy Bush has seen her town respond so well.
BUSH.LUNCHES IN 2:14 It wasn’t any different from what this community has done forever. It’s really hard for me to talk about it. It’s a very special place because people do that. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a tornado or death in a family – it’s a cool community. OUT 2:38
VO6: The volunteers repotted thousands of plants and fixed miles of irrigation pipes. But the physical work was the easy part.
Rob Matthews is a Deerfield neighbor.
ROB.HEARTBREAKING IN: 1:19 We all went over and helped for a while, and it’s easy to do that, you put in a day or two, and then you can walk away, but for them it could be years before they can get it back to what it was, and then it’ll never be the same, because you have a 50-year old tree. You can’t replace a 50-year old tree. OUT 1:38
AMBIENT SOUND BOBCAT IN: 0:25 FADE UNDER V/O
VO7: Today the volunteers are gone, and the harder, longer, expensive construction work has begun.
Peter Van Berkum.
IN PETER2 1:13 Now we’re in the stage where we have to get rid of the stumps, which is a big job because there are plants all over the place and ten we have to get all the plants out of here and we have to build an acre, an acre and a half of structure, we have to put up a bunch of posts and wires and suspend shade cloth from them, so it just all of a sudden put a big construction project in front of us so we have to empty it out and build and that’s going to take all fall, really. OUT 1:36
VO8: Insurance companies and disaster assistance programs don’t know how to replace the irreplaceable.
So far, only the Van Berkums are putting a price on their trees.
LESLIE13 IN :20 The natural light was something we felt was very valuable because it’s just the way the trees would have grown in the woods. They had that dappled light and the shifting sunlight. So the trees that our shade plants were grown under were incredibly valuable to us. I can’t even put a dollar value on it. But it’s something that we’re negotiating with the insurance company because they don’t see the value in the trees. OUT :45
VO9: With no disaster assistance available, the Van Berkums are relying on positive energy and a sense of humor to get them through the next tough months.
And Leslie has started a long list of the tornado’s silver linings.
IN LESLIE14 IN :33 There’s a beautiful view 0:34
IN LESLIE14 0:40 I think there’s even an increased feeling of unity in the town, an increased sense of community, from people coming out, I think that’s another silver lining. People saw each other who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. OUT :50
IN LESLIE15 2:48 When I feel a little down looking around me or miss the trees I just look at the list and try to keep the humor and try to look ahead. OUT 2:55
VO10: And they are looking ahead.
By sometime next year, they expect to have an acre or two of shade cloth standing in for their beloved pine trees.
And as much as they miss the trees, Leslie Van Berkum says that shade cloth will let them give their asters, astilbe and irises more light in the spring.
In the meantime, they’re keeping their good humor.
They’ve tagged hundreds of weatherbeaten plants with labels that read “Tornado Tough: Wind tested up to 125 miles per hour.”
For NHPR News, I’m Elaine Appleton Grant.
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