The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners has decided to lift the burn ban for the county, effective 6:00am July 25th. The disaster declaration for the county will also be terminated at the same time.
The cities of South Bend and Mishawaka are also lifting their burn bans at 6:00am Wednesday.
Not all cities and cities have decided to lift their bans.
Elkhart County Commissioner Mike Yoder says the earliest a ban would be lifted is Monday.
"Our concern is once the sun comes back out and things dry out, let's see how much green is out there. We'll look to the fire departments to give us some guidance and we'll lift it as soon as we can," says Yoder.
As a farmer, he adds, the recent rain is making a difference.
"Our crops look really good right now. We'll have some depressed yield on the non irrigated acres, but those look about 200 percent better than they did ten days ago," says Yoder.
Yoder says that's because some of his crops were planted later in the season and are benefiting from recent rain, and a lot of irrigation.
Unfortunately he says it's too late for crops planted early and many farmers are in a bad situation.
"This has been without a doubt, a catastrophic type of crop year," says Yoder.
He says the catastrophe means high feed costs for livestock, which will have to be passed to consumers.
