The impact of Hurricane Delta on Louisiana’s agriculture

Hurricane Delta is all but a memory now, but it left about 370,000 people without power as it made landfall near Creole, Louisiana. The storm continued over Lake Charles, which was still in full recovery mode following Hurricane Laura.

Homes damaged and destroyed by that storm are now flooded due to rain from Delta. The storm took at least two lives: one in Louisiana and one in Florida.

“One of the primary effects of Delta, as you add it to the damage from Laura, is that our ratoon crop of rice, our second cutting... we’re going to lose a lot of our second crop of rice, and of course substantial more timber damage because it came in a lot of the same spots,” Dr. Mike Strain, the Louisiana Ag Commissioner, said.

Strain says that out of the state’s 64 parishes, 56 are in an emergency declaration and 14 are currently closed.

RELATED: Delta adds insult to injury in hurricane ravaged Louisiana.

Avery Davidson with the Louisiana Farm Bureau says the main thing the state needs after Delta is good dry weather. He said Louisiana could also use some prayers from the public because it may be in rough shape after this.

“We need them to not forget that this is a long-term issue... we needed this year to be a home run,” he said. “This has been anything but a home run.”