SWVa farmers are picking up the pieces after Helene

For Charles Doane, cleaning up after Hurricane Helene will be a long process.

Doane owns Doane Farms, which raises 250 acres of beef cattle, hogs, fruits and vegetables in Smyth County.

High winds from last week’s historic storm leveled about 25 acres of trees and brought down several miles of fences holding cattle and pigs on the family’s farm. About 10 pigs were killed and other cows and pigs were released due to ruined fences.

“We have big animals now that are trying to put the fences back up,” Doane said.

In addition to repairing fences, Doane was busy using a small bulldozer to clean up flooded roads. He hopes to obtain an excavator to extract logs from the fallen wood and restore this part of the property to a usable condition.

“You can’t even walk on it at the moment. The tree limbs are simply fallen on top of each other,” he said.

Doane is one of many farmers assessing the storm’s impact on their operations in southwest Virginia, where agriculture is one of the largest industries.

Farmers and local officials report numerous washed-out roads and bridges, destroyed barns, waterlogged crops, downed trees and destroyed fences.

Andy Overbay, Virginia Cooperative Extension agricultural extension specialist in Smyth County, estimated that more than 100 of the county’s 800 farms were affected to some extent.

“One barn in particular was literally sucked out of the ground whole and placed on the roof. (…) You can see the wreckage of the barn and the hay that was once in the barn lying next to it,” Overbay said.

After taking into account all affected structures, fences, crops and timber, he estimated the damage in the county was at least $10 million.

“Honestly, I’m sure I’m a conservative,” he said.

Much of the harvested hay was destroyed. Overbay said hay that hasn’t been rinsed may now be so waterlogged that animals won’t eat it.

“It becomes a thousand-pound ball of garbage,” he said.

In Washington County, advisory agent Phil Blevins said many farmers lost “huge” amounts of wood due to high winds.

Like Overbay, Blevins reported seeing miles of destroyed fencing.

“He said one farm had no major damage other than the loss of hay, but he has a cousin who doesn’t even know where his cows are right now,” he said.

These stories are examples of the devastation wreaked by the storm, which brought strong wind gusts and widespread flooding to southwestern Virginia as it dropped 5 to 7 inches of rain – and in some places even more – on top of rainfall that had already accumulated before Friday’s direct impact.

The stories are also accompanied by accounts of the region’s inhabitants helping each other.

“We met families just outside of Independence in Grayson County,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said during a news conference Monday, “and they are hard-working farmers who literally saw their entire hay harvest destroyed. They saw all of their blueberry farm, their organic blueberry farm, completely destroyed. Yet they were more worried about their neighbors and how to reach them because the roads were still blocked. That’s what they were afraid of.”

Overbay is collecting information on affected farms to help coordinate efforts with state and federal agencies.

“Some of the people who lost the most told me that when they called, they said, ‘You know, we’ll be fine,’” Overbay said. “We don’t need anything. We knew you needed these numbers, here you go, but as soon as the money comes in, send it to someone who needs it. I don’t need it.”

President Joe Biden has approved a disaster declaration for Grayson, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and Wythe counties and the city of Galax, making federal aid available there. Youngkin said Monday that he expected five cities and 13 counties to be added to the list.

It will take some time to determine how many farms were affected and to tally the losses in the region. Officials are still assessing the damage, a task made difficult by blocked roads, spotty cell phone service and widespread power outages.

Overbay said that unlike a tornado, where assessing damage often requires following a strict path, assessing damage after a flood is more difficult.

“The problem with flooding is that you can set out on a road that’s fine, and then when you get to where you think you want to go, there’s no way left for it,” he said.

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