UVALDA — Arren Moses went to bed the night of Sept. 26, aware of the massive storm barreling toward Florida’s Big Bend region, but not terribly concerned it would harm their pecan orchard almost 200 miles inland in South Georgia.
Then, at about 1:30 a.m., they were shaken from bed by a roar they said sounded like a freight train. Soon, water from the storm’s lashing rains was seeping in through the walls of their 100-year-old home. Outside in the distance, they could hear the thud of trees being uprooted.
Every day since at Moses Pecan has been like “battlefield triage at a hospital,” said Moses, who co-owns the orchard and processing business between Macon and Savannah with his wife, Taylor.
It’s been nearly six months since Hurricane Helene turned into a mangled mess the land Moses’ family has farmed for more than 200 years. The story is the same on countless other farms and tracts of timberlands in this part of the state.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
The storm caused an estimated $5.5 billion in damage to Georgia’s agriculture and forestry industries, the biggest sector of the state’s economy, according to the University of Georgia. Helene, which also devastated Florida, the Carolinas and parts of Tennessee, was the seventh-costliest tropical storm to strike the U.S. since 1980 and has been blamed for at least 219 deaths.
Even with many fields still littered with debris, Georgia’s farmers and foresters are beginning to rebuild chicken houses, replant crops and take out loans to try to stay in business. But to succeed, they say they need more federal financial aid — and fast.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
“We’re not asking for handouts,” said Clay McKinnon, a Coffee County farmer who saw five of his six chicken houses demolished and blueberry bushes twisted by Helene’s winds. “We’re just asking for help from the federal government, which they give to a lot of other businesses and corporations.”
Georgia’s farmers haven’t been totally without federal aid. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has existing programs farmers like McKinnon and Moses can apply for to help defray their storm cleanup and other costs. Just this week, the USDA made $10 billion available to eligible farmers across the country to ease the pain of high fertilizer and fuel costs.
In a statement, a USDA spokesperson said the agency “has been working with Georgia agricultural producers to recover following Hurricane Helene,” adding farmers have already received millions in assistance through several programs.
But funding from the largest pot — a $100 billion federal aid package passed by Congress late last year — has been slow to arrive. Of that, about $21 billion is earmarked for farmers in Georgia and other states hit by recent disasters.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Former President Joe Biden and his administration faced pleas from Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper and other state leaders to deliver the aid swiftly. Now, pressure has shifted to President Donald Trump. Georgia’s Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock have urged Trump’s newly minted agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, to disburse the funds.
Congress set a deadline of March 21 for the federal government to distribute the money to states. During a visit to the state Capitol last week, Rollins said the money would “begin to move in the next few weeks.”
On Georgia’s farms, meanwhile, the clock is ticking.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Signs of the daily struggles facing many could be seen on the horizon around Moses' pecan orchard. In the distance, clouds of white smoke billowed from fires he said had likely been set by farmers desperate to do something with debris cleared from their fields.
Already, three pecan growers who used to bring their nuts to the family’s cleaning plant have told him they won’t replant. Moses said he appreciates the government’s help so far, but worries more farmers may decide to quit if more is not done soon.
“Our creditors are only going to be patient for so long,” he said.
‘Life changing’
The plight of Georgia’s farms and timberlands has been a hot topic at the state Legislature this session.
The budget Gov. Brian Kemp signed earlier this month includes $285 million in disaster relief for farmers and timber growers, which will fund low-interest loans for farmers to repair structures and grants for timberland owners to clear fallen trees. The Georgia General Assembly is also weighing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for Helene-related losses and rebuilding costs.
Growers with crop insurance are leaning on that to help stop the bleeding, but they say it’s nowhere near what’s needed to make them whole.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
No part of the Moses' orchard was unscathed, but their most mature trees took the hardest hit — about 95% were claimed by the storm. The saplings the family has replanted will take around seven years to begin producing nuts, and another five or more to reach peak output. The Moses' said their insurance policy will help cover their losses for 2024, but not the diminished crop they’ll have in 2025 and for years to come.
“It’ll set us back about 15 years,” Moses said.
Timber, another slow-growing commodity that most landowners maintain as a long-term investment, also took a major hit. And unlike many food crops, timber is rarely covered by insurance.
The brutal reality of the situation was evident on Jake and Lana Hilderbrand’s property about 90 miles northeast of Valdosta.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
After Lana’s father died recently, the couple inherited his timberland in Jeff Davis County. What they didn’t expect is that a hurricane would turn what had been orderly rows of southern yellow pine into piles of would-be kindling.
On a recent weekday, a team of loggers was swiftly sorting through the downed trees, trying to salvage what they could to take to a local sawmill. Jase Brooks, a forestry consultant with Brooks Land & Timber who is assisting the Hilderbrands, said speed is essential. The longer the trees sit on the ground, the more likely it is that “blue stain,” a fungus that discolors the wood and saps its value, will take hold.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Still, in a market flooded with wood from other tracts that were in the storm’s path, Brooks said the Hilderbrands' timber will likely only fetch about 40% of what it would have been worth normally.
“This is life changing for us,” Lana Hilderbrand said.
‘Rebuild and grow’
As growers wait for more federal aid, the rebuilding process has already begun across the region.
In the Moses’ pecan orchard, new saplings have been planted next to the stumps of downed trees. On McKinnon’s Coffee County farm, five neat pads of dirt now await delivery of the construction materials he needs to rebuild his lost chicken houses. And in Jeff Davis County, the Hilderbrands are mapping out plans to reforest their land. Then, they will start the long wait for the pine trees to grow.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
With the storm forcing many to put money into home and business repairs, Helene put a damper on the local economy in places like Coffee County, said Matt Seale, CEO of the county’s chamber of commerce and its economic development authority. Holiday spending in downtown Douglas was softer than normal, Seale said, likely a symptom of people “holding back on spending.”
But the mass layoffs some had feared have not materialized, he said. Pilgrim’s Pride, the multinational chicken giant that employs more than 1,000 workers around Coffee County, sustained damage to its facilities, but has kept them open.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
In Douglas, about 120 miles southeast of Macon, the flurry of activity spurred by rebuilding around town was evident at Carter’s Fried Chicken, a popular casual eatery. During a Thursday lunch rush, a steady stream of construction and farmworkers filed in to tear into crispy thighs, Southern sides and squares of cornbread.
Tidwell Carter, the owner of Carter’s, said the restaurant had to replace its roof, repair sheet rock and more after Helene. But since then, he said business had actually improved — a trend he attributes to residents banding together to support one another.
With debris piled on some properties and roofs still patched with blue tarps, Seale acknowledged there is work to be done, but said the resilience he’d seen was inspiring.
“We just need to make sure we continue to rebuild and grow,” Seale said. “And that’s what this community does so well.”
— Staff writer David Wickert contributed to this report.
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