As farmers prepare for what could be the strongest hurricane of the season, we are getting a closer look at the damage already tallied from Hurricane Helene.
The devastation reaches from Florida all the way to Virginia.
In southwest Virginia alone, coop extension estimates well over 125 million dollars in ag damages. Losses include livestock, crops, farm buildings, equipment, and more.
One Extension agent says that he is 47 years old and the devastation is unlike anything he has ever seen before, with unprecedented flooding causing so much loss.
The assessments will help state and federal officials allocate relief funding.
In the meantime, Virginia’s Extension, Cattlemen’s Association, Farm Bureau, and more are teaming up on an agricultural relief program. It is set to connect farmers in need with donations of hay, feed, fencing, and more.
Florida of course took the first blow from Hurricane Helene, with its impact being seen across all industries.
According to USDA Meteorologist Brad Rippey, “The reports are not good from the north-central part of the state, north of the big bend where low-lying areas were flooded, clogged with debris, and it’s going to be an indefinite recovery period there. Not a whole lot of crops in that part of the state, but where we do have some peanuts and cotton, recently dug peanuts were destroyed by the wind and the rain and anything still standing, including corn, blown over by the storm and even as far away as the peninsula there was reported damage in strawberry production areas of the central peninsula, around the Lakeland areas, one of the heavier producers. So new planting of strawberries were reportedly
significantly damaged by the winds that did gust the hurricane force, so wide-randing impacts across the southeast
some of that even extending to broilers, to chickens where we have had extensive power outages. That extends to dairy operations where it’s very tough to go on with normal farm life without electricity.”
Now, Florida is bracing for Hurricane Milton.
It is expected to make landfall Wednesday night and is waffling between a Category Four and Five storm.
