EDEN, N.Y. — The frequency and intensity of weather events have increased, and with them, funds needed to bounce back from everything from blizzards to flooding and recently here, record tornadoes.

Spectrum News 1 takes a look at a farm in southern Erie County hit hard by a recent tornado where the price tag is still massive, but at least some help has made it to them.

The county government is providing $200,000 after a lackluster insurance payout at Mammoser Farm in Eden, about a half hour south of the city of Buffalo.

The support both publicly and financially is something they’d like to see happen wherever disaster strikes. 

"There were 11 barns damaged," said Catherine Mammoser, of Mammoser Farm. "There were four completely totaled at this moment and we’re still assessing damages on more barns."

High winds ripped through the area just a couple of months ago.

"As most people may remember, it wasn’t that long ago that an EF-1 and EF-2 tornado hit parts of this community, as a result of the unfortunate storms that we’ve been dealing with in the last few years," said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

But some of the funds being allocated to this local farm are coming from a pot put together after not rain and winds, but snow. 

"The cleanup is often very expensive, $5 million per storm, so we started putting money aside in our budget to do that. Most people remember the November 2022 storm that caused significant damage to farms across our community,” said Poloncarz. “Greenhouses were flattened. Barns were damaged and we realized very quickly that we needed to come and offer assistance, because what often happens is insurance claims just do not cover the amount of damage that was incurred, especially when it comes to building such as barns and greenhouses."

All the figures add up quickly, so the established funds of roughly $2 million in surplus in this program can be saved for storms years down the road like this.

"The economic impact of our farms throughout the community is huge and most people don’t really recognize that all these funds what these farms generate goes back into local contractors, local material suppliers and it’s an economic driver and the local community," said Mark Gaston, Erie County Water and Soil Conservation District.

"No farms, no food," added Erie County Legislature Minority Leader John Mills. "A few things we have left in Western New York is our agricultural district. It’s a great use of taxpayers' dollars to put it back into the business that provides food for our residence here and other parts of the country." 

Two barns are already rebuilt, and more work in still assessing damages and getting equipment back up and running for harvest time is needed. So how long, even with the help, will it take to get a business like this back up after storms months ago?

"I get asked this question all the time," Mammoser said. "I go back-and-forth. I go, ‘will we ever be back to 100%? Yes. How long? I’m not sure.’ I’m hopeful we will be, but just due to financial constraints. I’ve been saying five years."