Hurricane

Ag Sector Could Score Big in Stopgap Spending

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 19:53:56 GMT

The House of Representatives released its Continuing Resolution (CR) text today, which includes:

A one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill
Around $10 billion in farmer economic aid
$21 billion in ag disaster funding for 2023 and 2024, which is part of the $100.4 billion to help the hurricane-stricken Southeast
Year-round E15 sales, which is a major victory for the corn and ethanol industries

The plan will offer credits to small refiners that petitioned for exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates (2016 to 2018 compliance years) but were denied or had pending petitions as of Dec. 1, 2022. The RFS requires refiners to blend biofuels such as ethanol into gasoline or purchase compliance credits.

The provision would override a previous U.S. government decision allowing year-round E15 sales only in eight Midwestern states (set to begin in 2025).

Extension of Orphan Programs in 2018 Farm Bill
There also appears to be an extension of orphan programs in the 2018 farm bill extension and a permanent 1890s scholarship program. The icing on the cake is a four-year extension of SNAP fraud via the skimming reimbursement language.

Orphan programs are ones that were authorized in the 2018 farm bill but did not have funding beyond a specified year. The extension provides $177 million of new mandatory funding for programs that did not have a budget baseline. This ensures these programs can continue to operate during the extension period.

The 1890s scholarship program provides scholarships for students attending 1890 land-grant universities, which are historically Black colleges and universities that were established under the Second Morrill Act of 1890.

The SNAP Fraud Reimbursement extension is the continuation of reimbursements for stolen Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. This provision protects SNAP recipients from losses due to benefit theft via card skimming, cloning and other similar methods. States will continue to be required to replace stolen benefits under this measure.

One source said, “Good policy would be emphasizing the need for states to transition to more secure measures for SNAP recipients, including stronger identity verification practices.”

Of Note
Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) did not get her wish to move conservation/climate funding into a one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill. That discussion will occur next year.

Economic Aid and Disaster Funding
Disaster aid for crop losses due to natural disasters for 2023 and 2024 will total $21 billion.

The discussions for economic aid centered on a $10 billion package to help farmers cope with price declines and rising input costs. House Agriculture Chairman GT Thompson (R-Pa.) indicated that $10 billion is the minimum he would accept. He mentioned Republican support for reallocating conservation program funds from the 2022 legislation into the farm bill baseline, but that Republicans are disputing the “guardrails” that require funds to support “climate-smart” projects.

Thompson also noted concerns that some critics want to ensure President-elect Donald Trump would have access to funds to compensate farmers for potential retaliation stemming from new Trump import tariffs.

Year-Round E-15
Year-round sales of E15 ethanol has been a long-standing goal for corn growers and ethanol producers, particularly in states such as Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota where a significant portion of corn production goes into ethanol.

Currently, E15 is available at more than 3,200 gas stations in the U.S., indicating room for growth (there are more than 196,000 fuel stations in the U.S.). About 95% of model year 2024 vehicles are explicitly approved for E15 use by manufacturers.

The actual increase in ethanol usage would likely be gradual as E15 adoption expands. While the theoretical maximum ethanol usage through year-round E15 sales could reach 20,586 million gallons annually, the actual increase would depend on factors such as consumer adoption and infrastructure development — separate fuel handling and storage for E15.

Now What?
A vote in the House won’t happen until at least Thursday night if House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sticks to his plan to honor the rule giving members 72 hours to review the bill.

Other House Happenings
House Democrats removed Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) as their senior Agriculture Committee leader after he received just 5 votes in Monday’s influential steering panel vote. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) emerged as the frontrunner with 34 votes, while Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) trailed with 22 votes. Craig now heads into Tuesday’s full caucus vote, seeking additional support. Craig plans to rally House colleagues for the final vote. Meanwhile, Costa vowed to keep pushing and will try to supplant Craig in the full caucus. Lawmakers had anticipated Scott’s ouster amid growing skepticism of his leadership — Scott has dropped out of the race.

Craig indicated part of her pitch to the panel was that there are no other Ranking Members for Democrats from the U.S. Midwest.

“There’s not a single ranking member from the middle of the country right now, and that was certainly part of my pitch to my colleagues, is that if we want to represent this whole country, then we need ranking members and leaders in the Democratic Party who are from the whole country,” she stated.

Craig came into Congress in 2019 while Costa and Scott were elected in the early 2000s.

GOP Eyes Strategic Appointment to Boost House Majority
Republicans may have found a way to temporarily expand their narrow House majority: appointing a Democrat to the Trump administration. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) is reportedly being considered to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) next year. The move would leave Democrats short a vote for weeks, bolster the GOP’s edge, and possibly help Republicans flip Moskowitz’s seat. Moskowitz, who previously served as Florida’s emergency management director under Gov. Ron DeSantis, could gain significant recognition if he pursues a 2026 gubernatorial bid. While his office and House Democratic leadership declined to comment, the appointment’s political ramifications are being closely watched ahead of Monday’s internal party elections.

Take our Poll: Do you think Congress should pass emergency relief for farmers in the CR? You can voice your opinion in our AgWeb poll.

U.S. Southeast Faces Daunting Cleanup from Helene as Death Toll Rises

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 16:41:42 GMT

Authorities across the southeastern U.S. faced the daunting task on Saturday of cleaning up from Hurricane Helene, one of the most powerful and perhaps costliest storms to hit the country, as the death toll continued to rise.

At least 47 deaths were reported by early Saturday, and officials feared still more bodies would be discovered across several states.

Damage estimates across the storm’s rampage range between $95 billion and $110 billion, potentially making this one of the most expensive storms in modern U.S. history, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist of AccuWeather, a commercial forecasting company.

Downgraded late on Friday to a post-tropical cyclone, the remnants of Helene continued to produce heavy rains across several states, sparking massive flooding that threatened to cause dam failures that could inundate entire towns.

“The devastation we’re witnessing in Hurricane Helene’s wake has been overwhelming,” President Joe Biden said on Saturday. “Jill and I continue to pray for all of those who have lost loved ones and for everyone impacted by this storm.”

Biden was briefed about the loss of life and storm’s impact
on multiple states by Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, the White House’s homeland security adviser, the White House said.

The president directed them to continue to focus on speeding up support to storm survivors and accelerating recovery efforts, including the immediate deployment of additional search and rescue teams into North Carolina, it added.

At least 3 million customers remained without power on Saturday afternoon across five states, with authorities warning it could be several days before services were fully restored.

The worst outages were in South Carolina with more than 1
million homes and businesses without power, and Georgia where 750,000 were without power.

Some of the worst rains hit western North Carolina, which
saw almost 30 inches (76 cm) fall on Mount Mitchell in Yancey County, the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center reported.

Atlanta was hit with 13 inches of rain, and farmers in South
Georgia were assessing the damage to the state’s $1 billion
cotton crop and $400 million pecan crop now in harvest season.

Before moving north through Georgia and into Tennessee and the Carolinas, Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday night, packing 140 mph (225 kph) winds. It left behind a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.

Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states on Friday.

More than 50 people were rescued from the roof of a hospital in Unicoi County, Tennessee, about 120 miles (193 km) northeast of Knoxville, state officials said, after flood waters swamped the rural community.

‘CHIMNEY ROCK IS GONE’

The NWS issued flash flood warnings overnight for a swath of eastern Tennessee covering 100,000 residents, warning them to seek higher ground. The Nolichucky Dam in Tennessee’s Greene County was on the brink of failure on Saturday, officials reported, adding that a breach could occur at any time.

In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam that it might fail, although they said late on Friday that did not appear imminent.

Multiple people in and around Chimney Rock, N.C., described the village’s downtown as washed out, with images online showing inches of mud and sediment, uprooted trees and snapped telephone poles and buildings turned into debris.

“All right folks, listen up, Chimney Rock is gone, Flowering Bridge is gone,” somebody known as Touristpov posted on TikTok, showing videos of the destruction. “I don’t know what they’ll do to get us out of here.”

In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced Interstate Highways 40 and 26 to close and parts of them were washed out, the county said on X.

Mountain communities such as Boone and Burnsville, N.C., were cut off as highways were clogged with debris or washed out, said Rebecca Newton, who was scrambling to find anyone with cell service in the area who could check on her family home near Mount Mitchell.

“Towns are totally cut off,” she said after spending her morning making dozens of calls to friends in the area. “They’re using helicopters to get people out of Boone and Asheville.”

“Spruce Pine is gone, nothing but rooftops poking out of water,” she said of the mountain community about 50 miles northeast of Asheville.

Newton said a friend told her she had watched houses in her neighborhood slide one at a time into a river near Boone.

“It’s unreal,” she said.

The Burnsville Hub Facebook page is replete with people desperate to find anyone to check on relatives and friends cut off from telephone service.

One poster, Rachel Richmond, wrote, “I need any route that will get me as close as I can. I will walk the rest of the way. I need to get to my parents.”

WAKING TO DISASTER

The extent of the damage in Florida began emerging after daybreak on Friday.

In coastal Steinhatchee, a storm surge - a wall of seawater pushed ashore by winds - of eight to 10 feet (2.4-3 meters) moved mobile homes, the weather service said. In Treasure Island, a barrier island community in Pinellas County, boats were grounded in front yards.

The city of Tampa posted on X that emergency personnel had completed 78 water rescues of residents and that many roads were impassable because of flooding. The Pasco County sheriff’s office rescued more than 65 people.

A total of 11 people died in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said on Saturday, speaking in Perry, Fla., which saw 15-foot storm surges, larger than those seen in hurricanes in recent years.

“If you look around here, you can see that some homes are just rubble,” he said. “This stuff comes in, it’s fierce and it’s just unstoppable.”

FEMA’s Criswell joined DeSantis on a tour of storm-damaged areas of the state. She will travel to Georgia on Sunday and North Carolina on Monday, the White House said.

“I just want to say on behalf of the president that we extend our deepest sympathies for those families that have lost loved ones,” Criswell said.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s office reported 15 storm-related fatalities in that state, while North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said there had been two deaths there.

At least 19 people died during the storm across South Carolina, the Charleston-based Post and Courier newspaper reported, citing local officials.

(Reporting and writing by Rich McKay; additional reporting by Joseph Ax, Andrew Hay, Brad Brooks, Ismail Shakil and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Daniel Wallis and Paul Simao)

Hurricane Helene Shutters Poultry Plants, But Smithfield Did Not Suffer Material Disruptions

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 12:39:00 GMT

Hurricane Helene shut at least two poultry plants in Georgia and North Carolina and twisted cotton crops in South Carolina in blows to U.S. food and fiber production, company and agriculture officials said on Monday.

More than 100 deaths across a half-dozen states have been attributed to the powerful storm that slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region late on Thursday before cutting a destructive path through Georgia and into the Carolinas.

Wayne-Sanderson Farms, the nation’s third largest poultry producer, closed a Moultrie, Ga., processing plant due to a loss of electrical power from downed transmission lines, company spokesman Frank Singleton said.

The complex processes 1.3 million chickens weekly and its timeline for resuming operations depends on Georgia Power crews restoring power, Singleton said. The company is providing fuel deliveries to local farms that also lost power, he said.

In South Carolina, many poultry operations are running on backup generators, said Eva Moore, spokesperson for the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. The state’s cotton crops took a big hit, she added.

“Open bolls have been knocked around, and plants are twisted,” Moore said. “This will make for a complicated harvest and may affect the grades of the cotton.”

Concerns over potential crop damage in key growing areas boosted ICE cotton futures.

In North Carolina, Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork processor, said transportation for its hog production operations was strained but the company did not suffer material disruptions.

A chicken plant near Morganton, N.C., is down, said Bob Ford, executive director of the North Carolina Poultry Federation. Still, the poultry industry was generally lucky because feed mills are operating and floods largely did not affect farms, he said.

For live chickens around Morganton, “they’re just going to get fatter” until the processing plant reopens, possibly on Wednesday, Ford said.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Your Next Read: U.S. Southeast Faces Daunting Cleanup from Helene as Death Toll Rises

Remnants of Hurricane Ida Expected to Bring Several Inches of Rain Inland, Potential for More Flooding

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 15:58:17 GMT

Hurricane Ida hammered southeast Louisiana, as the Category 4 storm came with 150 mph winds. And as the system moves across the U.S., meteorologist Mike Hoffman says some areas could experience significant rainfall.

“We always have to be concerned beyond what happens off the coast with a hurricane like Ida, and it’s the rainfall that ends up being a huge problem as we look inland a lot farther from the coast,” says Hoffman.

Downgraded to a tropical depression Monday evening, Hoffman says some areas still saw six to 10 inches of rainfall over the past 24 hours, causing flooding concerns. And as Hoffman tracks the remnants making their way into the Midwest and Northeast, more rainfall is expected to hit portions of the U.S.

“You can see how it takes it right across the Tennessee Valley, parts of the Ohio Valley, especially the eastern sections. And then you get into eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and Pennsylvania and on into southern New England. Some of those amounts could be huge amounts, mainly because of the mountainous regions in those parts of the country.”

We’ll continue to bring you the latest on the impact of Hurricane Ida, including impact to shipping and input production:

Hurricane Ida Shutters Exports with No Clear Timeline on How Long Shipping Delays Could Last

Hurricane Ida Idles Largest Glyphosate Production Plant in the U.S.

Hog Waste Fears Raised Again as Dorian Approaches North Carolina

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:34:04 GMT

(Bloomberg) -- Environmental groups are watching dozens of lagoons of swine waste stored directly in Hurricane Dorian’s path in North Carolina with growing trepidation, fearful that a breach will release millions of gallons of manure.

North Carolina is the nation’s second-largest pork-producing state, home to about 9 million pigs, with many farms located in the state’s low-lying eastern coastal plain.

Last year, Hurricane Florence caused dozens of swine manure lagoons to overflow or breach, sending thousands of cubic feet of waste swirling into flood waters, according to the Environmental Working Group, an environmental organization.

“Despite all the impacts we saw last year, nothing’s really changed,” said Sarah Graddy, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based group. “The concern is we will see something that happened with Florence where dozens and dozens of swine operations overflowed and or breached.”

A release of swine waste can contaminate drinking water systems with e.coli and other pathogens and lead to toxic algae blooms. And it’s not just pig poop that is of concern. North Carolina’s coastal plain is home to significant amounts of poultry farms that were impacted by Florence’s flooding last year as well, according to environmental groups.

“I think we could have severe water contamination, we could have fish kills, we could increased levels of fecal mater in the water making people sick,” said Drew Ball, state director for Environmental North Carolina, another environmental group. “Sadly, we’ve seen no serious significant movement on the issue.”

The National Pork Producers Council, a trade group, disputes that North Carolina’s swine lagoons aren’t prepared to weather Dorian and said the claims were motivated by environmental animosity toward the industry’s presence on the state’s coast.

Michael Formica, an assistant vice president with the council, said most of the state’s lagoons have been raised higher than required. He added Dorian isn’t expected to create as much flooding as Florence, which dropped 40 inches of rain some places. More than 98% of North Carolina’s 3,300 active lagoons did not experience significant issues during Florence, the group added, citing a report from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

“The lagoons are designed to handle storms of this nature,” Formica said. “They are more than capable of handling this.”

Dorian is forecast to move near or over the coast of North Carolina, and the coastal Carolinas may get 6 to 12 inches of rain, with 15 inches in isolated areas, and a storm surge as high as 7 feet.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

Carolina Meat Plants Crawl Back to Life as Florence Subsides

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:11:19 GMT

(Bloomberg) -- Major poultry and meat companies are starting to resume operations in the Carolinas as the torrential rains and flooding unleashed by Hurricane Florence start to subside.

Perdue Farms Inc. resumed operations at its Lewiston, North Carolina chicken-processing plant on Saturday and plans to reopen its facilities in Dillon, South Carolina and Rockingham, North Carolina on Monday, according to an email from spokesman Joe Forsthoffer.

Sanderson Farms Inc. said initial surveys show no significant damage at its North Carolina facilities and power has been restored at its Kinston plant. Tyson Foods Inc.’s plants in the Carolinas and Virginia have power and are expected to resume operations Monday, with the exception of a poultry plant in Monroe, North Carolina. The company’s working to ensure that its North Carolina farms running on generator power have fuel supplies, spokesman Derek Burleson said by email on Sunday.

Hog futures climbed for three straight days through Friday, when the storm made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane. North Carolina is among the nation’s top producers of hogs, chicken and turkeys, and many livestock processors had halted operations in the state and its neighbors ahead of the deluge. Florence was downgraded to a tropical depression early Sunday as winds diminished to 35 miles per hour, but officials said the threat of heavy rainfall persisted.

“Given the amount of rain those areas continue to receive, our assessment will continue through the weekend,” Sanderson Farms Chief Executive Officer Joe Sanderson Jr. said in a statement posted on the company’s website Saturday. “Our live inventory and the assets of our independent poultry producers in the region comprise a significant portion of our operations. Given the logistical difficulties caused by flooding and impassable roads, assessments of damage to those facilities will also continue.”

No ‘Substantial’ Impact

Hog farmers have been using using back-up power because of electrical outages and some reported minor wind damage, the North Carolina Pork Council said in a statement posted to its website Saturday. Overall, the industry has “not experienced substantial widespread impacts,” the group said.

Smithfield Foods Inc. said last week it was shuttering two plants in North Carolina on Sept. 13 and 14, including its Tar Heel facility, the world’s biggest hog slaughterhouse. The company’s processing facilities were undamaged and it’s assessing the storm’s impact at farms, spokeswoman Diana Souder said by email Saturday. The company didn’t say whether the plants are operating.

“Processing facilities are reported to be operational,” the Raleigh-based pork council said. “Production schedules have not been announced, but it is anticipated that determinations will be based on employee safety.”

Regional operations for turkey producer Butterball LLC are still suspended.

“In order to ensure the safety of our employees, we have suspended all North Carolina Butterball plant operations until the storm has passed,” Jay Jandrain, chief operations officer, said in emailed statement Sunday. “Many of our North Carolina-based processing plants, hatcheries and feed mills have been impacted by the storm, and we continue to see flooding and power outages throughout the region.”

Chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride Inc. didn’t immediately reply to requests made outside of normal business hours for comment on the status of plants in the region.

More than 10 billion pounds of wet animal waste is produced annually in the state, according to a June 2016 report by the Waterkeeper Alliance, a watchdog group. Environmental organizations are preparing to inspect waterways for toxic spills from manure lagoons once the storm subsides.

“Rainfall amounts across the region have not exceeded the available capacity of farm lagoons on whole across the industry,” the North Carolina Pork Council said. “Lagoon levels were low ahead of the storm” after the waste was used as crop fertilizer, the group said.

North Carolina farmer Mike Gaster, who raises chickens for Perdue Farms and also grows corn, soybeans and tobacco in Lee County, said his six poultry houses have been running on generator power since the start of the storm, which can last for as much as a week. While his chickens aren’t ready to be marketed yet, supply-chain disruptions from the storm are a concern for processors and he’s calling Perdue daily to discuss feed deliveries, he said.

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

Surge, Wind, Rain, Floods: Hurricane Florence Could Hit Hard

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:10:58 GMT

By JONATHAN DREW, Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Mandatory evacuations were imposed for parts of three East Coast states Tuesday as millions of Americans prepared for what could become one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to hit the Eastern Seaboard in decades.

Hurricane Florence’s size is “staggering,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham warned.
“We could cover several states easily with the cloud cover alone,” Graham said. “This is not just a coastal event.”

Florence’s top winds dipped to 130 mph (215 kph) Tuesday morning, but it remains a Category 4 storm and is expected to approach the most-damaging Category 5 status as it slows and strengthens over very warm ocean water off the coast of North and South Carolina.

The center of the massive storm is then forecast to meander Thursday, Friday and Saturday over a stretch of coastline saturated by rising seas, inundating several states and triggering life-threatening floods. Seven-day rainfall totals are forecast to reach 10 to 20 inches over much of North Carolina and Virginia, and even 30 inches in some places. Combined with high tides, the storm surge could swell as high as 12 feet.

“The water could overtake some of these barrier islands and keep on going. With time, the wind pushes the water into every nook and cranny you can think of,” Graham said. “All you have to do is look up at your ceiling, and think about 12 feet (of water). That, folks, is extremely life-threatening.”

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said his state is “in the bullseye” and urged people to “get ready now.”
The very center of that bullseye may be Camp Lejeune, the sprawling Marine Corps training base, where authorities were opening emergency operation centers and staging equipment.
“Please be prepared, be careful and be SAFE!” tweeted President Donald Trump, adding: “WE are here for you.”

South Carolina’s governor ordered the state’s entire coastline evacuated starting at noon Tuesday and predicted that 1 million people would flee as highways reverse directions. Coastal evacuations were in effect for Virginia and North Carolina as well.

Florence could hit the Carolinas harder than any hurricane since Hazel packed 130 mph (209 kph) winds in 1954. That Category 4 storm destroyed 15,000 buildings and killed 19 people in North Carolina. In the six decades since then, many thousands of people have moved to the coast.
Ahead of Florence’s arrival, barrier islands were already seeing dangerous rip currents and seawater flowed over a state highway — the harbinger of a storm surge that could wipe out dunes and submerge entire communities.

Watches in effect Tuesday forecast a storm surge of up to 12 feet at high tide from Cape Fear to Cape Lookout in North Carolina. A hurricane watch was in effect for Edisto Beach, South Carolina, to Virginia’s southern border, with the first hurricane-force winds arriving late Thursday.

For many people, the challenge could be finding a safe refuge: If Florence slows to a crawl, it could bring torrential rains all the way into the Appalachian mountains and as far away as West Virginia, causing flash floods, mudslides and other dangerous conditions in places that have already experienced lots of rain recently.
“This is going to produce heavy rainfall, and it may not move very fast. The threat will be inland, so I’m afraid, based on my experience at FEMA, that the public is probably not as prepared as everybody would like,” said Craig Fugate, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Florence’s projected path includes half a dozen nuclear power plants, pits holding coal-ash and other industrial waste, and numerous hog farms that store animal waste in massive open-air lagoons.

All signs pointed to a stronger, slower, wider and wetter hurricane in the days ahead, forecasters said.
A warm ocean gives hurricanes their fuel, and Florence is moving over an area with water temperatures nearing 85 degrees (30 Celsius), hurricane specialist Eric Blake wrote. With little wind shear to pull the storm apart, hurricane-strength winds have been expanding to 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the eye of the storm, and tropical-storm-force winds 150 miles from the center.

“Unfortunately, the models were right. Florence has rapidly intensified into an extremely dangerous hurricane,” Blake wrote Monday evening that top sustained winds would approach the 157 mph (253 kph) threshold for a worst-case Category 5 scenario. Tuesday morning’s data from hurricane-hunting aircraft supports this forecast, the center said.

By 8 a.m. Tuesday, Florence’s eye was about 950 miles (1,530 kilometers) east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and moving west-northwest at 15 mph (24 kph). It was moving between Bermuda and the Bahamas on Tuesday and Wednesday before nearing the Carolinas on Thursday.

Two other storms were spinning in the Atlantic as the 2018 hurricane season reaches its peak. Isaac became a tropical storm again approaching the Caribbean, while Hurricane Helene was veering northward, no threat to land.

In the Pacific, Olivia became a tropical storm again on a path to hit the Hawaiian islands early Wednesday.
Airlines, including American, Southwest, Delta and JetBlue, have begun letting affected passengers change travel plans without the usual fees.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said an estimated 1 million people would be fleeing his state’s coast, with eastbound Interstate 26 heading into Charleston and U.S. 501 heading into Myrtle Beach reversed to ease the exodus.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s evacuation order applies to about 245,000 people, including parts of the Hampton Roads area and Eastern Shore.

Liz Browning Fox was planning to ride out the storm nevertheless on the Outer Banks. She said her house, built in 2009 in Buxton, North Carolina, is on a ridge and built to withstand a hurricane. But even the most secure homes could be surrounded by water, or penetrated by wind-launched debris.

“You never know, there could be tree missiles coming from any direction,” she said. “There is no way to be completely safe.”

But, she added, she’s not sure whether going inland would be much safer: “I don’t know where to go from here.”
___

© Associated Press 2018

NOAA Outlines Hurricane Season

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 03:05:47 GMT

(Bloomberg) -- On the heels of the costliest hurricane year on record, the Atlantic is expected to produce five to nine of the mighty storms during the six-month season that starts June 1, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

A total of 10 to 16 named storms, tropical-strength or stronger, will likely cross the basin, threatening people, real estate, crops and energy resources in the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean, according to the agency’s annual forecast Thursday. Of those, one to four may become major hurricanes with winds of 111 miles (179 kilometers) per hour or more.

“Regardless of the seasonal prediction, Atlantic and Gulf coast residents need to prepare every year,” Gerry Bell, a forecaster with the Climate Prediction Center, said during a conference call. “There are over 80 million people between Atlantic coast and Gulf coast that can be affected by a hurricane.”

Hurricane season is closely watched by markets because about 5 percent of U.S. natural gas and 17 percent of crude comes out of the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Energy Information Administration. In addition, the hurricane-vulnerable coastline also accounts for 45 percent of U.S. refining capacity and 51 percent of gas processing.

Florida is the world’s second-largest producer of orange juice. Along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts there are more than 6.6 million homes with an estimated reconstruction cost of $1.5 trillion, according to the Insurance Information Institute in New York.

Costliest Year

Last year the U.S. was hit by three major hurricanes -- Harvey, Irma and Maria -- that helped drive total losses to more than $215 billion, according to Munich Re. It was the most costly season on record, surpassing 2005 which produced Katrina. Overall 17 named storms formed in 2017, which fell in line with NOAA’s prediction of 11 to 17.

The forecast is influenced by conditions across the equatorial Pacific. Earlier this year La Nina collapsed and the ocean returned to its neutral state with the possibility of an El Nino forming later this year. El Nino, when the Pacific warms and the atmosphere reacts, increases wind shear across the Atlantic that can tear apart hurricanes and tropical storms, reducing the overall numbers.

Conditions in the Atlantic will also play a role. Hurricanes need warm water to fuel growth and the basin is currently running colder than normal. Forecasters are currently watching a system in the Gulf of Mexico that may become a tropical depression by Saturday.

An average to above-average season means there is a greater chance the U.S. coastline and Caribbean islands are at risk, said Bell.

“When you have a more active season you have more storms forming in the tropical Atlantic and those storms track further westward,” Bell said. “Certain areas have been compromised from last year’s storms that makes hurricane preparedness ever more important this year.”

Copyright 2018, Bloomberg

Florence’s Death Toll Includes Millions of Animals

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 04:43:03 GMT

(Bloomberg) -- For Chris Smith, whose North Carolina farm is home to 30,000 chickens and 150 acres of sweet potatoes, the fight to survive Hurricane Florence is not yet over.

As torrential rains from the storm filled local waterways and flooded nearby roads, Smith, one of hundreds of local farmers in a state known for its poultry and hog operations, found himself cut off from supplies, power and any way to move his birds out.

The ferocity of the storm was surprising, according to Smith. “We thought we weren’t in a flood-prone area, but we had a pretty good scare,” he said. He rationed the feed he had on-hand as best he could, and used 250 gallons of diesel per day to keep his generators running.

Now Smith, who counts himself lucky that his flock survived, is looking to quickly move his chickens to processing plants before the weekend, when more showers are forecast and the nearby Neuse River may flood further. He’s not alone. Seeking to minimize deaths from a storm that’s already killed millions of animals, farmers are turning to helicopters, boats and heavy trucks to supply farms stranded by flooding and ebris.

An estimated 5,500 hogs and 3.4 million chickens and turkeys have already died as a result of Florence, which hit landfall Friday. Six days later, flooding remains a problem, with some roads still impassable and some rivers still near cresting.

Many of the state’s 2,100 hog farms “are returning to normal,” according to the North Carolina Pork Council. But about a dozen still remained unreachable as of Thursday morning, Andy Curliss, the group’s leader, said.

The current push to save animals will, by necessity, be followed by a more grisly effort: The need to quickly and safely get rid of millions of carcasses that carry significant health risks.

Speed is key. As livestock carcasses degrade, they release fluids, gases and a slew of toxic chemical, biological and radiological compounds, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has said. If left untouched, the carcasses can leach into drinking water, and draw flies and rats who can spread pathogens to humans and other livestock.

Buried, Composted or Rendered

The animals killed by Florence will be buried, composted or “rendered” for usable parts, state officials said. The state is working to supply woody materials that can be placed around dead birds, helping them compost more quickly. Several landfills with impermeable linings may take larger carcasses, again topped with woody materials.|

Environmentalists, meanwhile, said they remain concerned based on results from past storms, including Hurricane Matthew two years earlier and Hurricane Floyd in 1999, an event that killed at least 20,000 hogs.

“Every time I see the same things: flooded lagoons, chicken houses filled to the roof with dead chicken,” said Rick Dove, an official with the environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance and a resident of New Bern, North Carolina. “We never learn from any of these storms. We have the same problems: dead animals, and feces and urine running down the rivers.”

Farm Inspectors

The final death toll won’t be known for several days, at the minimum. The state is sending inspectors into farm areas to assess the damage, but as of Wednesday they were waiting for flood waters to recede in many areas, the department said in a release.

“We will likely have lost more chickens than anything else,” Jimmy Dixon, a state representative and former turkey farmer, said after touring eastern parts of the state by helicopter Tuesday. “I would say by Thursday we will have a good count.”

The death toll might’ve been worse had many farmers not moved animals out of at-risk areas before Florence hit. About 20,000 pigs were moved to other states, other parts of North Carolina or to the market, the Pork Council’s Curliss said. Turkey producer Butterball LLC lost only about 30,000 birds, or about 0.2 percent of its total in the state, after having relocated some turkeys, spokeswoman Christa Leupen said.

Chicken flocks weren’t all that were hit in Kinston County, where’s Smith flock is located. Smith also grows sweet potatoes, and doesn’t know when he’s going to get back out to harvest them. North Carolina is the top producing state of the tubers, and Smith grows 150 acres of them, only three of which he’s been able to harvest so far.

The potatoes can be picked by hand, but “we use a plow that flips them out of the ground,” he said. “And you can’t flip mud.”

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

5 Tips to Keep Your Farm Operating in a Disaster

Thu, 13 Sep 2018 00:12:00 GMT

All farmers need to know what, where and how they will keep the farm operation going during a disaster. Whether it’s wildfire, hurricane, flood or blizzard, there are planning resources to make a stressful time easier to manage.

1. Do you have an Emergency Action Plan (EAP)?

Every farm needs one, but it’s not always written down or updated with the most current information.

Hog farmers should have an EAP as part of the Pork Quality Assurance assessment . One should be done for the overall operation and a separate assessment for each production site.

Carefully plan for possible emergency scenarios, such as natural disasters, staff changes, disease outbreaks and market interruptions. Perform routine maintenance and training for employees to be to respond quickly and efficiently.

To comply with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), employer must have printed copies of the EAP accessible to all employees. For operations with less than 10 employees, the plan may be reviewed orally.

Also see this Purdue University resource for all types of farms.

2. Plan for Evacuation

Know how you will evacuate in a disaster and where you will go.

If it is not feasible to evacuate your livestock , USDA says to provide adequate food and water to last them until you can return, and a strong shelter. If you plan to move livestock out of state, contact the state veterinarian’s office in the receiving state before you move any animals. You can also contact APHIS Veterinary Services state offices for assistance.

3. Livestock Farmers: Assess Manure Storage, Water and Feed Supplies, Electricity Needs

Many hog farmers ahead of Hurricane Florence are reporting ability of storing at least 25” of rain. Proper lagoon design and maintenance will lower possibility for waste water release. Every hog farm in the state must maintain a minimum buffer of 19” to allow for significant rain events, but many have much higher protection. For more information, see “ Hog Farms and Hurricanes: A Primer on Lagoons and Flooding .”

If heavy rainfall causes hog lagoons to reach capacity and overflow, contact your state natural resources or environmental officials. More information can be found at USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Disaster Recovery Assistance .

Ensure feed and water supplies will adequately sustain animals until the disaster is past and normal operations can resume.

Move pastured animals, such as cattle, horses and sheep to higher ground and cut fences if neccessary. Prepare additional feed supplies, as pastures may not provide enough forage until floodwaters recede.

Expect to loose electricity during hurricanes, and be equipped with generators and back up systems for confined livestock. If hog buildings lose electricity, ensure feeding and ventilation needs are met.

4. Inventory and Label Chemicals, Fuels, Fertilizers and Machinery

Keep good records on the amount of chemical you have in inventory.

Label large equipment, such as fuel tanks or 55-gallon drums of supplies, with your contact information in case flood waters move them off your property.

During and after floodwaters leave, cautiously evaluate on-site and off-site pollution caused by spilled fuels, pesticides, oils, propane, and fertilizers.

Even after floodwaters have receded, spilled product might require expensive remediation.

5. Lists of Emergency Contacts, Suppliers and Employees

Compile a list of contractors who can help with emergency supplies of sand, feed, water and waste removal, and their 24-hour phone numbers. During the emergency, you will be competing for resources.

Without working out a plan ahead of time, the items you need may not be available when you need them.

You can also contact your Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) for individual site consultation.

Specifically, know where you can rent or buy:

Large-volume “trash” pumps
Large-capacity generators to run lights and pumps
Sand and sandbags
Clear or black plastic sheeting
Tractor-trailers
Warehouse space
Rain gear to keep employees dry
Garden hoses (about 600 feet) and nozzles for cleaning, flushing, and washing
Flat shovels for removing muck

After the Disaster Has Passed

Livestock owners and contract growers who experience above normal livestock deaths due to specific weather events, as well as to disease or animal attacks, may qualify for assistance under USDA’s Livestock Indemnity Program .

Livestock, honeybee and farm-raised fish producers who suffer animal, feed, grazing and associated transportation cost losses due to an extreme weather event may qualify for assistance through USDA’s emergency assistance program tailored for their agricultural sectors .

Producers who suffer losses to or are preventing from planting agricultural commodities not covered by federal crop insurance may be eligible for assistance under USDA’s Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Programs if the losses were due to natural disasters.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program can help with immediate needs and long-term support to help recover from natural disasters and conserve water resources.

Farmers and ranchers needing to rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters can apply for assistance through USDA’s Emergency Conservation Program , Emergency Forest Restoration Program .

USDA’s Emergency Watershed Protection Program also can help relieve imminent threats to life and property caused by flood, fires and other natural disasters that impair a watershed.

Producers with coverage through the Risk Management Agency (RMA) administered Federal crop insurance program should contact their crop insurance agent for issues regarding filing claims. Producers should report crop damage within 72 hours of damage discovery and follow up in writing within 15 days.