Farmers are ‘fortunate’ the storm wasn’t as strong as originally predicted, one producer said
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Some U.S. producers are considering themselves lucky after a hurricane quickly downgraded to a tropical storm, preventing major crop damage.
Barry made landfall in Louisiana Saturday afternoon as a Category 1 hurricane (which involves sustained winds of at least 74 mph), bringing multiple inches of rain and flooding concerns. The storm has since lost some of its force and, as of Monday, is categorized as a Tropical Storm (with wind speeds between 39 and 73 mph).
The storm is projected to hit Arkansas and Missouri before it heads east towards Pennsylvania.
“The rain will target mainly the mid-Mississippi and lower Ohio valleys on Tuesday before moving into the upper Ohio Valley on Wednesday, reported Max Vido, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.
American producers in Barry’s path, who have already dealt with challenging weather this season, are thankful the storm didn’t cause significant damage.
“We’ve honestly been very fortunate in our area,” AJ Hood, a cash crop producer from Tillar, Ark., told Farms.com. “We thought we were going to get between eight and 10 inches of rain, and we may only end up with two.”
In some cases, Barry’s rain proved to be useful.
“We were actually pretty dry, so we needed the three to four inches of rain we got,” Raymond Schexnayder, a cash crop grower from Ventress, La., told Farms.com. “The storm did blow over a little bit of corn. It’s leaning over but it isn’t flat on the ground, so I don’t think that will be a problem come harvest.”
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration photo