COFFEE COUNTY, Ga. — As damage from Hurricane Milton in Florida was seen for the first time Thursday, in Georgia there is still a long road to recovery from the devastation left behind last month by Helene.
"This is just a snapshot of every farm in the Coffee County, or really the tri-county area. This devastation, there are actually some farms that are worse than mine. It is a broad area that it did hit," farmer Clay McKinnon said while showing 11Alive the damage to his fields during a video call Thursday.
Mckinnon runs his family's farm McKinnon Farm in the city of Douglas. He said his cotton, peanut, and blueberry crops all took a hit during Helene.
The storm also destroyed costly equipment and buildings on his property.
"This is a 25,000 bushel grain bin that the wind basically picked up off of the pad," McKinnon said.
High winds twisted the irrigation system running through his fields, and only one house from a six-house poultry operation is still standing.
"The rest of them are all on the ground," McKinnon said. while pointing to the poultry houses. "We've lost around 3-and-a-half to 4-million dollars of infrastructure and crops. On a farm you handle millions of dollars a year. But a very small fraction of that is yours to keep. So we are already probably a million and a half dollars out of pocket just to rebuild."
Georgia Chamber of Commerce CEO and President Chris Clark said it will still be months until the full extent of Helene's toll on Georgia businesses and farms is known.
"I think this is so much broader, most destructive hurricane that we have ever seen.," Clark said. "I think my biggest worry right now is the impact to the farm crops. We know blueberries have took a real bad hit, pecan industry, cotton, peanuts to a lesser degree but still significant. I think it is going to take us a few months to see what that total impact is going to be."
Clark said the area of damage is widespread, which is one reason it will take time to put a price tag on the damage and recovery.
"We have about 90 counties that were impacted, we still have about 46,000 customers in Georgia that are without power," Clark said.
The hardest hit areas were in South Georgia.
"It impacted about 33% of businesses in most of those communities. In some format," Clark said. "Some of those are going to be putting a tarp on it and then repairing the roof. Some of it is going to be a lot bigger."
Currently, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce is working to help farmers as well as other businesses with resources, several forms of financial aid and the application process for Small Business Administration disaster loans.
The agency has a page published online dedicated to Helene business recovery, along with a pamphlet featuring links to key resources.
"How do you help those small businesses and companies that were impacted?" Clark said. "We were just on the phone with Washington with SBA to make sure we have those loans lined up, the disaster relief, supporting mental health needs in South Georgia, so that has been our focus now."
For farmers specifically, the road ahead could be similar to 2018 and Hurricane Michael. The damage was significant enough that Congress passed an aid package for farmers in 2019.
"They're going to have to come back if not immediately after November, to take care of our farmers," Clark said. "We think there is enough money in the SBA program right now. We just heard that over 4,000 Georgia businesses had already applied for SBA disaster relief support; they've processed about 40 of those to the tune of about $2 million. There is a lot more to go."
Back on the farm, McKinnon remains optimistic.
"Farmers, in general, are very resilient," he said.
He is committed to regrowing his farm but knows it will take time.
"The effect of this storm will be felt not only for this season but several seasons to come," McKinnon said.