More than $70 million Irene damages in N.C., hits farmers hard
As North Carolina begins to recover from the deluge of rain and high winds of Hurricane Irene, Governor Beverly Perdue estimates that the storm caused more than $70 million in damages; Farmers near coastal areas were hit particularly hard with many reporting total losses
As North Carolina begins to recover from the deluge of rain and high winds of Hurricane Irene, Governor Beverly Perdue estimates that the storm caused more than $70 million in damages.
After touring the damages in a helicopter with DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Governor Perdue said that the recovery costs were likely to increase when agricultural and business losses were calculated.
“This has become an expensive hurricane for North Carolina,” Perdue said.
Farmers near coastal areas were hit particularly hard with many reporting total losses.
“My tobacco crop is completely wiped out. I can’t harvest any of it,” said Keith Beavers, whose farm is about 70 miles from the ocean. “It’s either blown off the stalk or off the limb, and what’s left is raggedy.”
After surveying the damage, Secretary Vilsack urged farmers to file damage claims with their insurers and said federal aid would help cover any damage to rural infrastructure and could help cover additional losses.
“I’ve not seen the kind of flooding and damage to crops that I saw briefly today,” Vilsack said. “And if this is representative of what North Carolina has suffered, it’s a fairly significant blow.”
Hurricane Irene hit tobacco farmers in North Carolina and Virginia the hardest along with blueberry producers in New Jersey.
North Carolina, the largest producer of tobacco, could face tough economic times as the tobacco industry employs an estimated 225,000 people and accounts for roughly $7 billion worth of business.
“We’ll be lucky to harvest a third of our contracted amount,” said seventy-fiver year old Jimmy Hill, who owns a farm near Kinston, N.C. He added that this is the worst hurricane damage he’s seen in his life.
Analysts say the storm will not have a significant impact on the nation’s food supply or crop prices, despite the losses. The nation’s top producing regions for corn and soybeans are located in the Midwest, so the damages to corn and soybean farms from the storm are minimal from a national perspective.
Meanwhile livestock producers seem to have endured the storm with minimal damage, including North Carolina’s large hog industry.
