Michael's Combined Damage To Farming & Timberlands In GA, FL - At Least $4 Billion
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The Georgia Department of Agriculture estimates farm damages to be as high as $2.8 billion. Meanwhile, in North Florida, Timber industry losses alone are almost half that amount. The Florida Department of Agriculture estimates Michael damaged 3 million acres of timberland to the tune of $1.3 billion.
In more easterly Leon and Wakulla counties, after Michael's high winds blew down cattle fences some livestock escaped but most were recovered. Farm buildings, wells and pieces of farm equipment were also damaged, said Les Harrison, director of the Wakulla County Extension Office who has been charged with assessing Michael's farm damage in the Big Bend.
“As you go west, it’s much more severe. In Jackson, Calhoun and Washington counties, it is an almost total loss of the cotton crop,” said Harrison, who compares Michael's destruction to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Ivan in 2005. “This was a bad one. It really injured commercial agriculture.”
North of the state line, Michael was equally brutal to Georgia's cotton crop. The storm cut a devastating path through the heart of the Peach State's cotton-growing region, said Richey Seaton, executive director of the Georgia Cotton Commission.
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https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2018/10/21/hurricane-michael-billions-damage-farm-timber-crop-destroyed-florida-georgia-cotton-pecans-chickens/1659685002/
