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 debt 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 the 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 who met
and 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 speicalists were on their way to the hardest hit
areas. Their job was to find out the extent of the damage and to 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 may have seemed a tardy meeting, coming as it did a day
after Diane, which considerably changed the picture of destruction; but the
front-page lay given the story on that meeting indicated the extent of Connie’s
work was still news. It was a tail 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 counteract 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 the wet leaf. The promising
cotton crop wasn’t so promising anymore. The two storms had wrung $11 million
out of it.
At the August 17 Extension meeting, it was agreed that a
further survey on damage from both storms should be made by means of a
questionnaire to county agents, who were asked to call on other agricultural
works for help. This was in the mail to 47 stricken counties by that afternoon.
In another week, the answers were back.
The loss to farms amounted to $62 million. 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 all 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 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-time 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—the point of doing something about it.
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