Record-setting rain and floods in North Carolina caused by Hurricane Florence have destroyed the state’s poultry sector with 3.4 million chickens and turkeys reported killed.
Pig losses are estimated at 5,500.
Widespread power outages and flooded roads are making it difficult to get help to abandoned livestock operations. The state is home to about nine million hogs. Concerns about overflowing pig manure lagoons, while a concern, where not directly affecting downstream drinking water.
Many fields of corn, tobacco, soybeans, cotton and peanuts also remain under water and it will take several more days to learn the true extent of the damage.
Tobacco appears to be the crop most affected by the storm with the state producing about 50 per cent of the national production worth about US$725 million, based on United States Department of Agriculture data.
