Bracing for Fallout: Second Hurricane hits Florida just as producers clean up from Ian

early morning flooded road from hurricane ian_Photo by pelow media_AdobeStock_537370206.jpg

A flooded road after Hurricane Ian.

Producers in Florida are once again bracing for fallout from another hurricane.

Hurricane Nicole made landfall overnight near Vero Beach and is now working its way up the East Coast as a tropical storm. Right now, winds are blowing at 60 miles per hour and Meteorologist Tim Ross says it should be a fast-moving storm that will travel all the way up to New England.

Heavy rain is expected along Nicole’s path, but given its speed, Meteorologist Brad Rippey says the sugar cane harvest should be safe.

“We still see some critically low river levels in the Mississippi Basin. Especially from the mid-Mississippi Valley, southward river levels have risen a few feet, generally one to three feet from the record lows that we saw back in October. But we’ve got a ways to go before w can turn this around in terms of rising river levels.”

This week’s USDA numbers showed 58 percent of U.S. topsoil moisture conditions is short to very short.

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“It is no secret that livestock grazing is a means of reducing those fine fuels on the ground.”
“The clean-up process is going to be a very, very long time. It’s not going to take months; it’s going to take probably years, if not longer than that.”
“The other fruits and veggie guys, they’re just kind of a wait-and-see type of position.”
“We find lots of public support when there is a natural disaster, but maybe a little bit less when people think prices are too low.”

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