Some farms are under water and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has pledged resources to those affected by Hurricane Debby and its remnants. The slow-moving storm, which is moving through South Carolina today and already affecting North Carolina and Virginia, has been downgraded to a tropical storm but still promises several inches of rain.
Debby first made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Monday on Florida’s Big Bend coast and made landfall a second time early today in South Carolina. The expectation is that it will be downgraded to a tropical depression by this evening. Yet because of how slowly it’s moving — at about the pace of a person walking — means its lingering for a long time over the areas it’s affecting, increasing the flooding risk.
Local media reports talked of farms being under two feet of water, the constant barrage of tornado warnings, and how the storm threatens to wash out a lot of the moisture progress that has been made. The region came into the week relatively stable by U.S. Drought Monitor standards, with only a few small pockets showing anything worse than Abnormally Dry conditions.
But for all the concern that a sluggish storm like Debby brings with it, there are bright spots. The Southeast AgNet Radio Network said that “from an agricultural standpoint, Debby moved through about the best possible area you could take a hurricane through the Southeastern United States.” That’s because the path only minimally impacted Florida’s key citrus- and sugarcane-producing regions, as well as bypassing major Georgian areas for peanuts and cotton.
Of course, the storm is still making its ways through agriculture-heavy states, so the USDA said that producers who suffer losses and are signed up for Federal Crop Insurance or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program are asked to report crop damage to their crop insurance agent or local Farm Service Agency office, respectively, within 72 hours of discovering damage and follow up in writing within 15 days. Livestock and perennial crop producers often have more limited risk management options available but that there are several disaster programs for them.
Virginia Farm Bureau issued a notice ahead of hurricane season with a list of tips for preparing property and keeping livestock safe.
“Proper planning and taking precautions now could save thousands of dollars in property loss. I strongly encourage all agricultural producers to review these tips and take time now to prepare their farms and agribusinesses for hurricanes and other severe weather events,” said the state’s ag commissioner Joseph Guthrie.
