Preliminary estimates for Hurricane Debby’s impact show an approximate $28 billion dollars in damage and economic losses.
The storm had a widespread and long-lasting impacts on the coast of the eastern U.S.; hardest-hit locations experienced a foot or more of rain in the span of one or two days. The highest wind gust reported in the storm was 99 miles per hour at Horseshoe Beach, Florida and the highest storm surge was over six feet in Cedar Key Florida.
While flooding damaged homes and businesses, USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey says that he is actually surprised by the limited agricultural damage seen so far.
According to Rippey, “That storm took a favorable track, mostly between key ag areas. So, for example, we didn’t see any major impacts in Florida citrus areas and at the same time, the core of the storm stayed east of a lot of the key southeastern production areas from Georgia into the Carolinas.”
While he is not downplaying the negative impact Debby has had on these communities, he says that the industry did walk away in relatively good shape considering the damage that could have been caused.
