Agriculture Officials Release Initial Farm Damage Report from Hurricane Mathew

COLUMBIA, SC (AP)– A year after the historic 2015 floods, South Carolina farmers are recovering from another storm.

State Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers says Hurricane Matthew has affected many of the farms affected after last October’s rains caused what has been called a 1,000-year flood.

Agriculture officials are still trying to tally up a dollar amount for the Hurricane Matthew damage. But they know there are significant losses to the cotton crop and moderate losses to the soybean crop.

Peanuts were harvested before the storm, but power is out to seven of the 12 locations where they are sold in the state so storing the peanuts could become an issue.

More than 200,000 chickens were killed in the storm and many poultry farms don’t have electricity and are relying on generators to power chicken houses.