Ga. farmers continue cleanup efforts 4 months after Helene
DEARING, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Georgia farmers are still facing a long, uphill battle toward recovery after Hurricane Helene.
It’s been nearly four months now since the category 1 hurricane hit our area, bringing devastation, unlike anything our area has ever seen.
That means Georgia farmers are also navigating uncharted territory.
At Hillcrest Farms, life is like a spa.
“My family’s been here since 1941. We hope we’re here for another hundred years,” said Mark Rodgers with Hillcrest Farms.
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Rodgers treats each and every one of his cows like royalty.
You might say his blessings overflow.
“We didn’t have any deaths from all this. All this livestock was fine. So, we can, we do have the ability to recover from it,” said Rodgers.
Most of what they lost is replaceable.
“Our biggest loss was our commodity barn, which has about 14 giant bays with about eight or ten semi-loads of feed that were getting drowned because the roof was completely gone. Most of the walls were gone,” he said.
But within days, Rodgers says, “We found a barn building crew to come in, start the repairs. Within about three weeks, we had it completely renovated and back up. So, it took a lot of work, and we’ve still got barns and feeding areas. There are some roof pieces missing, tractor sheds. We’re going to be working on that probably through the spring.”
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Recovery is all around.
A report from the University of Georgia estimates Hurricane Helene will cost Georgia’s economy at least $5.5 billion.
The storm impacted every crop Georgia farmers produce from cotton to pecans to dairy and cattle.
“After several days of wet, soggy feed which is what we had on hand, they were lower on production. And we had about a two-week slump in production for the entire herd,” said Rodgers.
But stronger than the age of time is this farm’s ability to rebuild.
“The hurricane was devastating to us and our family. But we were lucky,” said Rodgers.
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