Early on Friday, hurricane Hermine made landfall in Florida and became a tropical storm on Saturday morning, but could still be near hurricane intensity for part of this week.
Sweet potatoes
Despite tropical storm Hermine coming into North Carolina during the sweet potato harvest, the storm seemed to be a blessing for some farms. “We received about four to five inches of rain from Hermine,” says Annette Chancy of Millstream Farms in Dunn, NC. “The rain stalled our harvest for two days, but because of the dry conditions before the storm we were able to start again quickly,” she added. The rain was much needed for some sweet potato farms in other parts of the state whose crops were not quite ready to be harvested.
The rain ended up being a benefit to most of North Carolina’s sweet potato crop. “Low lying areas however can become compromised with the amount of rain we received in such a short period of time,” said Jeff Thomas of Scott Farms. “Damage in these areas could be offset by gains in other areas,” Thomas added. For the lower areas, it is hard to say what the effect on the crop will be until harvest starts.
Georgia peaches wrapping up
The Georgia peach season is wrapping up and if Hermine had hit two weeks earlier, there would have been a lot more damage. “Two of our farms were hit by wind and rain,” said Benjie Richer of Richter and Company. “We really needed the rain, but the wind did blow some peaches off the trees,” Richter added. “All in all, we were only mildly affected. Our losses amounted to about two truckloads of peaches that fell off trees, sustaining damage that made them unsuitable for harvesting.”
Kim Flores from Seald Sweet International in Florida commented that 'Other than a lot of rain, the company wasn't really affected by Hermine."