MANCHESTER (AP) – Thousands of acres of cropland inundated when the Lake Delhi dam burst may be difficult to harvest – even if some of the crops survive.

Delaware County District Conservationist Keith Krause says the best estimate as of Monday is that 2,000 acres of crop land and 2,000 acres of pasture were flooded along the Maquoketa River.

Rough preliminary estimates are that about 4,000 acres of crop land may have flooded in Jones County.

While some of the crops may recover, Krause says, much of the pasture will be lost for the season because it will be too covered with silt and mud.

Krause says harvesting surviving crops may be hard because of all the trees, tin, wood from docks and other debris that made its way into the fields.