Officials say damage to farms 'catastrophic'
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 17, 2016 11:05 AM
Full Size
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Large puddles of water stand in areas throughout the Mitchell farm, with several full tobacco bulk barns sitting in the water, causing damage to the harvest.
Catastrophic.
Monumental.
Incalculable.
That is how agricultural officials are describing Hurricane Matthew's impact on Wayne County's leading economic engine even though it will be weeks -- if not months -- before the full scope of the devastation is known and a clearer understanding of the storm's long-range effects emerges.
Torrential rainfall created flooding county wide putting fields, roads, homes, schools, and livestock operations in jeopardy, Wayne County Extension Director Kevin Johnson said.
"We have been trying to get around and assess the damage," he said. "The damage from Saturday alone was monumental. Between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. we got 11 inches including nearly 3 inches between 2 and 3 p.m. Goldsboro got over 16 inches from Matthew, which was the highest total in North Carolina.
"Right now we have just got a lot of unknowns because the water is still rising in parts of the county, and we just don't know where we are, and we won't know for a while."
As such, it is difficult to gauge how the storm will affect prices at the grocery store, Johnson said.
If there is any silver lining to be found "in this mess" it is that lessons learned from Hurricane Floyd in 1999 prevented a repeat of ruptured or overflowing hog lagoons, said state Rep. Jimmy Dixon, of Mount Olive.
"Floyd was a wake-up call," said Dixon, a chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. "We learned a lot. We responded. One of the bright spots that we have found is that as devastating as this is in our swine industry, we have had no significant breaches in our lagoons. There is no pollution of any kind taking place."
That compares to 17 municipal waste systems that had breaches, he said.
"The No. 1 concern is the mortality that we are experiencing in some of the poultry operations," Dixon said. "I received word this morning (Wednesday) from (Agriculture) Commissioner (Steve) Troxler that we have a very good likelihood of $5 million from the federal government on a rapid basis to do some in-house composting of the dead poultry which is a tremendous benefit and way to take care of that."
But just as important are concerns about getting feed to the various livestock operations affected by floodwaters or washed out roads and bridges, Dixon said.
"We are currently involved in the attempt to get military assets in the form of some high-water flatbed crane-equipped trucks that we could adopt various equipment to put feed on them and get to the livestock operations over the next couple of weeks," he said.
Johnson said he does not know how many poultry houses have been damaged or destroyed by floodwaters. But is it estimated at least eight poultry houses were lost killing more than 100,000 birds.
Poultry houses built after Hurricane Floyd were built to be above the flooding level caused by that storm, Johnson said.
"But this storm, the water is going to get above that," Johnson said. "The flooding runs all of the way from Princeton to Seven Springs, and we have got livestock operations close (to the Neuse River) all of the way through there. One of the biggest concerns is feed getting to the animals.
"I talked to one of the growers Tuesday morning, and they have them rationed. They are only going to feed them a few times a day. Instead of going for a lot of weight gain right now they are going for survival."
The governor's emergency declaration includes provisions added two years ago that waives certain regulations, Dixon said. For example, weight limits on transporting feed or animals or stuff that comes out of the field, produce or agriculture products out of the fields, he said.
Also waived is the limit on driving time behind the wheel since a driver may have to take a circuitous route, he said.
Johnson said he did not have any information about swine operations, and that it is also difficult at present to judge the level of crop loss.
"Corn and tobacco, I would estimate that we were at 95 percent-plus (harvested)," Johnson said. "I know there was a little tobacco out there, and there was some corm out there. Some (tobacco) were in the barns. With power losses, some have generators, that is another whole ball game because they have to keep those barns running to finish out their curing.
"So power outages created another scenario. But I would say the big things that are going to be hurt are soybeans, cotton, peanuts, and there was still a great amount of our sweet potato crop out there. I am going to guess that we were at 60 percent (harvested) with sweet potatoes."
How much of the crops remaining in the field is lost will depend on how long the flooding lasts and when farmers can get equipment into the fields, he said
A "whole lot" of soybeans are under water, he said.
"We have a lot of river farmland," Johnson said. "Of course we plant it in corn or beans. That is all a total loss. You had a lot of standing water Saturday. I am sure it damaged some of those beans, but we really aren't going to be able to tell for a while what the damage is."
The storm's aftermath could delay winter plantings as well, and its impact could possibly be felt into spring, Johnson said.
"It is going to have impact because the farms are still going to be trying to recover, I guess you could say," Johnson said. "They have go to financially recover. They are going to be some equipment losses. Hopefully those things will be covered with insurance, or if FEMA steps in with help. But I know with Floyd it just took a little while to recover.
"A lot of my fears are around the river and tributaries with the water, but you know with the wind we did lose barns. I have been getting reports where we lost sheds. We lost barns. We lost roofs on turkey houses. The typical stuff you would expect with high winds -- we got that. Trees fell on stuff. I have reports and list, but we are going to have a very detailed report and it is going to take months to get all of this stuff."
The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has activated its toll-free hotline, 1-866-645-9403, to help farmers affected by Hurricane Matthew connect with resources that can assist with recovery.
Farmers can also find recovery resources at www.ncagr.gov/disaster.