Losses could linger for years for Ga. farmers hurt by Helene
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SOPERTON, Ga. - Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and other leaders gathered to talk to the agriculture community on the impacts of the recent storms.
On Phillip’s Farms, a family farm that was impacted by the storms, state and local leaders gathered to talk to the impacted agriculture community led by Kemp.
“It’s what Marty and I told people as we visited probably about a dozen counties now, literally just going by suburban county by county,” said Kemp. “That we see you, we see the damage that you have had to dealt with, we will not forget you, we will continue to work on this issue, no matter what size community you are in.”
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Sen. Jon Ossoff has pulled together 34 of Congress from both parties to launch a bipartisan push for agricultural disaster relief following Hurricane Helene.
Hundreds of farmers gathered Thursday morning all facing a loss.
“We couldn’t imagine what it left us with, you know,” said Ben Gillis, local farmer. “This isn’t supposed to happen in Georgia.”
Gillis is a sixth generation tree farmer who says his land was destroyed.
“It’s my whole life’s work, his whole life’s work, work that even my grandfather and great grandfather who planted trees on our place ... have all been affected by the storm,” said Gillis.
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According to University of Georgia’s Agriculture Department, there has been a reported $1.9 billion impact to agriculture from Hurricane Helene.
Kemp says his efforts to this community, started with more federal decelerations of aid to more rural counties.
“I said you need to send a signal that we are not going to forget that we know, we know what people are dealing with...and they added almost 30 counties immediately,” Kemp said.
BY THE NUMBERS:
- Agriculture is Georgia’s top industry, contributing more than $83 billion to our state’s economy on an annual basis and employing more than 320,000 Georgians.
State Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper says working to fund what was lost is his goal.
“They’ve really come together, across all partisan divides and we’ve really been able to work together for all Georgia, for all farm families, forest owners, to help ensure we get the needed disaster aid across the finish line and work to get that done by the end of the year and do it in a block grant,” Harper said.
At the end of the day, the farmers here say that although they lost plenty, they are grateful to not have lost everything.
“Unbelievable, trees are all down around the houses but most the houses were spared,” said Billy Moses, a local farmer. “I’m just thankful we didn’t have more loss of life than we did.”
Help for farmers
In response to Hurricane Helene, more than 40 agriculture industry organizations, led by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Georgia Farm Bureau, and Georgia Foundation for Agriculture, have ed together to create the Weathered But Strong: Georgia Hurricane Relief Fund. All of donations to the fund will go to help impacted Georgia farmers recover from Hurricane Helene. More information is available at www.georgiafarmers.org.
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