Financial aid sought for flood-stricken poultry farmers

While the USDA indemnity programs may help compensate North Carolina poultry farmers for the birds they lost in flooding caused by Hurricane Matthew in October, those programs will not cover property damages.

Roy Graber Headshot
Rombough, Freeimages.com
Rombough, Freeimages.com

While the USDA indemnity programs may help compensate North Carolina poultry farmers for the birds they lost in flooding caused by Hurricane Matthew in October, those programs will not cover property damages.

Bob Etheridge, North Carolina state director for the USDA Farm Service Agency, noted that some farmers may not have had insurance on buildings and equipment damaged or lost to flooding, which adds to their difficulties. There are also significant expenses involved in storm clean-up and decontamination procedures. Presently, the USDA does not have any programs available for such losses, but Etheridge said he hopes that will change soon.

“We’re working on it. Hopefully we’ll find some way, because if we don’t some of these people are going to have a real tough time making it,” Etheridge said in a USDA Radio News interview.

Officials are still trying to assess the losses the North Carolina poultry industry suffered, but Etheridge said on November 2 that he knows a minimum of 2 million birds drowned in the flooding. That number is up from the 1.9 million birds confirmed dead on October 19, but there has been speculation that as many as 5 million birds had been lost.

Hurricane Matthew may have been worse than Hurricane Floyd

North Carolina farmers are not new to flood damages brought on by hurricanes. In 1999, Hurricane Floyd hit the state, which the USDA said caused more than $1.3 billion in losses to the state’s agriculture sector.

Etheridge said there is a good possibility that Hurricane Matthew’s financial toll may be worse than the damages brought on by Hurricane Floyd.

However, at least one poultry company learned from its losses caused by Hurricane Floyd. House of Raeford Farms was able to reduce its losses brought on by Hurricane Matthew by relocating birds from farms that were hit by Hurricane Floyd to other vacant farms in less flood-prone areas.

Page 1 of 1576
Next Page