Two August Hurricanes Hurt Farmers in 1955

From Extension Farm-News, September 1955 issue

Through the first week of August, and for a few days of the second, North Carolina farmers were cautiously looking forward to a bumper harvest—a welcome one that promised to reduce some of the accumulated debts of three straight years of drought, capped by a severe hurricane (Hazel) and the worst late freeze in memory.

North Carolina Extension specialists were equally happy about the way crops were looking. Many were on vacation or military leave.

The day of August 11 changed that. Hurricane Connie, after lingering off the Carolina coast for two days, moved in on the Wilmington area August 11 and out the Northeast corner the next day. In passing it reaped the record harvest that many farmers had hoped would be theirs.

When it seemed likely that Connie would affect the farming areas of North Carolina, absent specialists returned to their posts in Raleigh, which itself came under the influence of the storm Friday morning. That same morning, Director D.S. Weaver and Dean of Agriculture D.W. Colvard called a meeting of district agents and specialists. The 30 extension workers that met ad examined the potential damage realized the problem wasn’t simple. It ranged from small, but costly, things like curing fires drowned out in tobacco barns, salt water on expensive rugs, power failure to electric freezers, and salt water in an electric motor, to the obvious problems of brined crop land and corn felled by high winds.

Before the day was over, seven radio broadcasts and television appearances had been made by specialists, and two spot news stories had gone out over the Associated Press and United Press wires. Five of the broadcasts originated in the Extension Service studio at State College, and were carried throughout the state on the Civil Defense network; two went on the air over WPTF. A telecast from the State College studio of WUNC-TV was picked up by at least one other VHF station.

The news stories carried the pledge of Colvard that the college would do all possible to help farmers recover from the storm damage, and presented specific recommendations to help farmers salvage crops, equipment and furnishings.

About the time the afternoon papers were reaching flooded streets, teams of Extension specialist were on their way to the hardest hit areas. Their job was to find out the extent of the damage and render immediate assistance where they could. The results of the survey gave the governor the information he needed to take prompt action to obtain emergency relief for the agricultural areas, and it impressed on the other citizens of North Carolina the severity of the loss on farms.

Direct results of this, and a subsequent survey, were an increase of ASC cost-sharing from 50 to 75 per cent on land-plaster in the stricken counties; an extension of cost-sharing to include reclamation of salted land; and FHA disaster loans being made available to farms in the area.

Even as the Extension teams were gathering to make a formal report on their findings, Hurricane Diane struck the North Carolina coast, five days after Connie, and moved inland. It brought record, and generally unwanted, rains to cotton, corn, and tobacco fields.

It might have seemed a tardy meeting, coming as it did a day after Diane, which considerably changed the picture of destruction; but the front page play given the story on that meeting indicated the extent of Connie’s work was still news. It was a tale of almost complete destruction to the farm economy of at least one county. Based on the survey of Specialists Al Banadyga and E.R. Collins, it showed there was no obvious way to remedy the damage. In Hyde County, the two reported, farmers were still suffering from last year’s Hazel, which poured salt water on 3,500 acres of cropland. Connie raised the figure to “8,000 acres of land unfit for agricultural production.” (This was later revised to 20,000 acres when the Extension Service had totaled up the Diane destruction.)

Home gardens were completely destroyed, and in one town, farmers were already turning in mortgaged farm equipment. Emergency loans didn’t offer much help, Collins reported. The people of Hyde had borrowed last year and were depending on the 1955 crop to repay the loans. Now that was lost. Current cost-sharing rules for land-plaster to help counter-act the salt wasn’t much help. Few farmers could share a part of the cost. The situation called for something new and bold in farm disaster aid.

As Assistant Extension Director C.B. Ratchford said, “While damage to counties like Hyde is dramatic, there is damage in all of the eastern counties.” A bumper corn crop lay under water and was beginning to sprout. Low corn prices made it doubtful whether immediate harvest and sale was the complete answer. Tobacco was out of the field in most places, but in some it wasn’t; recommendations were needed on handling wet leaf. The promising cotton crop wasn’t so promising anymore. The two storms had wrung 11 million dollars out of it.

At the August 17 Extension meeting, it was agreed that a further survey on damage from both storms would be made by means of a questionnaire to county agents, who were asked to call on other agricultural workers for help. This was the mail to 47 stricken counties by that afternoon. In another week, the answers were back.

The loss to farms amounted to 62 million dollars. It was broken down into workable details that showed the agricultural agencies where their work lay.

Meantime, recognizing the need for immediate action, Gov. Luther Hodges, Director Weaver, Commissioner of Agriculture L.Y. Ballentine, Attorney General William Rodman, and others, including Representatives Graham Barden and Hubert Bonner, attended a mass meeting of farmers at Belhaven, Beaufort County. The people who could help learned first-hand the problems created by the hurricanes; agricultural agency representatives explained what they could offer under existing rules, and pledged qall speed possible in obtaining aid.

When the governor received a copy of the compilation of damage reports from county agents, he called a meeting of agricultural officials Monday afternoon, August 22. The FHA, SCS, ASC, Extension Service, and State Department of Vocational Agriculture were represented at the meeting. The group suggested that counties establish permanent committees on hurricane damage. Membership was to be composed of the chairman of the county Soil Conservation District Supervisors, Farmers Home Administration Committee, and County ASC Committee, and the membership of the Technical Agricultural committee, which is made up of the FHA supervisor, SCS technician, county ASC manager, county agent, and one vocational agriculture teacher. Four additional members were to be chosen by the other eight members.

The counties have completed the organization of these committees, and some have already submitted their recommendations.

The first assignment of the committees was to ascertain the damage done by the two hurricanes; in most cases the Extension survey fulfilled this need:

The committees were asked to study the situation in their counties and to make recommendations for (1) immediate emergency procedures; (2) medium range steps to be taken (such as counter-acting the salt damage to permit cropping next year); and (3) long-range protection against hurricane damage.

Since the first hurricane struck, Extension specialists have been directed to give priority attention to the counties suffering damage. Through the Extension news, radio, and television services, the specialists have been regularly issuing timely recommendations to help stricken farmers earn incomes this year, and protect their equipment and household furnishings.

Not the least results of the prompt action taken by the Extension Service is the optimism displayed by farmers. The initial presence of the survey team, the subsequent action of the governor, ASC and FHA, based on the Extension reports, and most recently the establishment of local organizations on hurricane damage, have demonstrated to disheartened farmers that somebody is interested in their welfare—to the point of doing something about it.