Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler sits down each week with Southern Farm Network’s Rhonda Garrison to discuss “Today’s Topic.”
Hurricane season officially began June 1, but as we’ve already seen, the weather doesn’t always wait for the calendar. Tropical Storm Ana kicked off the season nearly a month ahead of schedule when it dumped rain on eastern North Carolina in early May.
Unfortunately, farmers in North Carolina have a lot of experience with hurricanes and tropical storms. And as Commissioner Troxler is fond of saying, it only takes one storm to ruin a farmer’s year. That was the case last year, when Hurricane Arthur damaged corn and tobacco fields in several Eastern N.C. counties. It was the only storm to hit North Carolina in 2014.
Hurricanes can do major damage to the coast, the mountains and all points in between. No county in North Carolina is immune to hurricane damage. It doesn’t even take a direct hit from a storm to cause a lot of damage. For example, in 2004, the remnants of three storms caused flooding in the North Carolina mountains.
It’s important for farms and agribusinesses to have an emergency plan. Discuss the plan with your employees and family so they will know how to react if power is lost or the farm or business is at risk for flooding. Being prepared can make a difference in salvaging a crop or saving livestock.
Also, review your insurance policies now to make sure you have proper coverage, including wind, hail, flood and catastrophic coverage if necessary.
The department has online resources to help farms and agribusinesses plan and recover from a disaster. You can download a Farm Emergency Plan Template to help organize information that is needed after a disaster.
Click on the audio player below to listen to Commissioner Troxler and Rhonda discuss the importance of being prepared for hurricane season.
[Audio:http://info.ncagr.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Troxler_6-2.mp3|titles=Today’s Topic for June 2]
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