Producers in Western North Carolina are still working to clean up from damage suffered from Hurricane Helene in September. The latest estimates from Virginia Tech put the final price tag for damage to agriculture, forestry and related industries in the state between $416 million and $630 million.
One professor at Virginia Tech puts future income losses for farmers at more than $50 million. That’s due to land having to be taken out of production. It’s expected producers of Christmas trees, blueberries, beef cattle and apples will be the hardest hit.
The North Carolina Farm Bureau traveled to the western part of the state to report on the damage firsthand. Lynda Loveland, Director of Communications for NC Farm Bureau, spoke to Yancy County farmer Kevin Wilson. He told Loveland he wasn’t sure he would ever see the county rebuilt back to where it was in his lifetime.
“People have lost homes; people have lost lives. We’re going to be dealing with scars from this flood for centuries from now,” said Wilson.
Wilson described the day the powerful storm hit: “From about 8:30 am to 10:30 am it was just nothing but an onslaught of wind and rain. Rain would come in sheets. I don’t think anybody expected the amount of water we were going to get.”
“We’ve got a boatload of fences to rebuild. We did lose some corn,” Wilson told Loveland.
He says one pasture behind his home had developed a bit of a mudslide that hadn’t broken loose yet, and he was watching it closely to see if it would give way.
“I would say my wife and I probably lost two-thirds of our timber. When you go up on the mountain it looks like Pickup Sticks,” said Wilson.
He also discussed the loss of other agricultural land in a county that needs to be preserved as much as possible.
“Some of the most fertile land in Yancy County was along the Cane River Valley--great places to grow corn, hay, things of that nature, but this storm was ruthless,” Wilson said.
Wilson is concerned about what it will take to try and reclaim land now covered in dirt and debris. “That is definitely a detriment to the county because these river bottoms were super valuable.”
“I think that’s going to be one of the biggest challenges moving forward is how do we rebuild? How do we get back to a point of normalcy? How do we get back to where it was?”
Farm Journal would like to thank the NC Farm Bureau for sharing this report. You can find more of NC Farm Bureau’s coverage following Hurricane Helene, on their YouTube page here.
