What were the harvests of Hurricane Florence?

It's hard to say that Jimmy Burch had a brisk harvest of broccoli, turnips and other vegetables in his fields a little over a week ago. After Hurricane Florence dumped 16 inches of rain into the Faison area, many fields look like a flat expanse of mud. A few dead brown stems coming out of the ground are the only sign of the crumbling harvest.

"It looks like there is nothing there, and there is nothing there," Burch said. "It breaks your heart here."

Burhc is one of the largest vegetable producers in North Carolina. If you bought fresh vegetables from Harris Teeter, Food Lion and Walmart, there is a good chance that some were grown in his 8,000 acres of fields. He estimates that at least 1,000 acres were destroyed by days of heavy rains.

Burch Farm stood firm two years ago during Hurricane Matthew. Florence was different, because the rain and the wind had remained for days. "Between wind and rain, you just have to beat him to death," he said of his plants. "Like someone who whips you with a hell of a pipe."

Burch is one of many farmers in eastern North Carolina who account for their losses. There is still no estimate of the damage available, but Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler told the Associated Press that "it will be easily in the billions of dollars".

Florence hit while farmers were just weeks away from harvesting soybeans, tobacco and other crops in the fall. "This storm could not have come at a worse time for North Carolina agriculture," said Larry Wooten, president of NC's farm office, on a visit to Burch's farm with the Governor Roy Cooper. Cooper said he would soon meet US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, and "we'll see what we can do from a state and federal point of view to help our farmers."

Burch says he will lose $ 750 for every hectare of damaged crops and does not have crop insurance. Even farmers with insurance will be very successful.

"If you can pay half of your bills" with insurance money, "you're in luck," said Justin Williams, a Wayne County farmer. Williams is still waiting to see how his peanut crop has unfolded during the storm. "We have to wait until it dries out" before we can tell if the nuts are good, he said, adding that he hoped the area would not receive more rain. Sweet potatoes are also unknown at the moment: farmers will not know if they have rotted until they are unearthed.

James Sauls, a pig farmer in Duplin County, was one of the luckiest: his hog houses lost only a few pieces of tin in the storm. But last month, he spent 18 hours a day cutting 200 bales of hay that are probably too damaged to be sold. "All this work and maybe I have to put it in the woods, let the deer eat it."

But even the farmers who take a big boost quickly note that they resisted better in Florence than some of their neighbors. "The crops can be replaced," said Sauls. "Human beings can not."