WILLIAMSTON — It looked like shredded paper, but it was metal and harder to mold. Still, the August 2023 tornado didn’t stop tearing up Tim Dietz’s farm, three barns and heavy equipment. From ripping off the garage and blowing out the windows and popping the ears of the seven inhabitants hiding inside. From making the family live in a single-wide trailer with thin walls and no privacy and possessions until a new homestead could be built.
Almost a year later and Tim is still picking up nail boards, trusses and other shredded-lettuce-like metal that have caused 22 flat tires on his tractors, cars and trailers.
Still, he’s excited about “starting from scratch.”
About sleeping in a normal bed in a normal home in a normal community.
That might happen this fall.
On this July day, debris is already replaced by a new, 92-by-120 pole barn with radiant tube heat and a doorway big enough for Tim to pull the combine in and do maintenance. A hundred or so steps aways, a new home is covered in Tyvek and contractors inside work on wiring.
Ingham County Farm Bureau members Tim and wife Stephanie patiently wait to (re)enter.
“It's been a challenge adjusting,” Tim told Michigan Farm News.
“Our son actually moved out in that amount of time. He found a house in Webberville. Not too far away. And we've got the trailer that was provided by insurance, but it's two bedrooms, so things are pretty tight. Our youngest still lives with us, and she's here to take care of her horses, but, yeah … it’s been a challenge.”
It’s a challenge accepted by Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan (FBI) and the community of Williamston, a town of 3,700 people that made sure the Dietzes had a farmowner’s policy — which partially covered the family’s loss of three barns, a house, and several vehicles — and were fed with enough food, wine, and laughs.
A town that made sure Tim kept farming.
“Farming is in the blood,” said Tim, noting the farm’s increased its herbicide usage on soybeans to control volunteer corn due to the 120-mph storm, which also destroyed trees, cars, homes, and left standing water in area growers’ fields. Dietz had sheet metal and tree branches across his roads and 350 acres following the incident.
“The fifth and sixth generations are actively farming here,” he said. “To have all the all the history here on Dietz Road — I just couldn't give it up.”
It’s about making members whole again, said FBI agent Ben Stiffler.
“It’s probably the most uplifting thing we do after a tragic loss,” he told Michigan Farm News. “I think Farm Bureau is doing well to do that — to care for the affected clients. I’ve known the Dietzes for years. They are good friends. This is what communities do.”
According to Tim, Stiffler arrived quickly after the storm, “although the roads were shut down because power lines were laying across them.”
“He was out here and took care of us, checked on us frequently,” Tim said. “He was one of the first people to come out with water, to ask what else we needed and then to reassure us that the insurance adjuster would be out to assess the situation.”
Tim said other farmers should get an insurance review done — before a natural disaster takes place and the proper limits aren’t established.
“It’s absolutely important,” he said.
“I know it’s expensive, but we would never expect to lose all our buildings in our house, right? To have that … assurance that, OK, you're going to be able to rebuild now — it may not be the exact same as what you had — but to know that you have that in your back pocket is helpful.”
Near the corner of the makeshift home stands a plant, the lone survivor of a storm that didn’t play favorites, according to Stephanie, and “tore off the tops of many trees.”
It’s actually a lilac bush. Underneath it is Stephanie’s mom’s ashes.
Ashes that will need to be replanted once the new house is finished.
Ashes that Tim dug up and kept from the storm’s embrace, his thinking that there will be another house, another lawn to landscape.
“It’s not an easy process, though,” Stephanie said.
“It’s so surreal to see how many people have come together with us.”
Like the local high school football team and church members who spent a day helping them clean debris. Like members of Ingham County Farm Bureau, FBI, David Gray and Colin Hill of Michigan Bayer Crop Science, and Stevens Construction & Excavating, among others, asking if the family needed help.
“Right afterwards, we were pretty down,” added Stephanie, a librarian at Fowlerville schools. “People stopping by with food, water and just checking on us. It's really been good. I'm sure they're pretty excited to see stuff go up, too.”
The next time you’re on Dietz Road, look at the corn that’s eight feet tall, the pole barn with John Deere equipment tucked in it, and the house that’s missing siding, windows, and doors.
Look for the lilac bush.
“When this is all said and done,” said Stephanie, “I want to be able to thank everybody for what they’ve done.”