COLUMBIA: Following intense rain and flooding, South Carolina Department of Agriculture Commissioner Hugh E. Weathers toured the state by air Oct. 5 and 6, and said conservative early estimates are that direct crop losses from the flood may exceed $300 million.
The storm has had a significant statewide effect, and it appears that low lying farmland adjacent to rivers systems and creeks was most severely impacted. Weathers said that “long-term, this disaster will cause an income loss for local farmers and the rural counties of South Carolina.”
He noted that 2015 has been an exceptionally challenging year for farmers in South Carolina due to severe drought during the growing season and excessive rainfall at harvest. “Efforts will continue to gauge losses through the completion of harvest season,” he said.
“We’re going to work on behalf of our farmers with the federal and state resources and assistance our farmers have access to,” Weathers said. “A request has been sent to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for an agricultural disaster declaration to be made, which begins the process for federal assistance to our farmers. Right now, the most important thing for farmers to do is learn the details of their crop insurance policies and immediately contact their crop insurance agent prior to making any additional investments in their crop.”
Weathers added that he shocked by the effects the rainfall on farms and described “thousands of farm acres under water, farm buildings standing as islands in the water, and farm roads washed away.”
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