Hurricane Florence: Millions of chickens drown and thousands of pigs die in North Carolina

Lucia Binding20 September 2018

Millions of poultry birds and thousands of pigs were killed as a result of Hurricane Florence, while flooding from the storm damaged crops in South Carolina.

Some 3.4 million poultry birds, including chickens and turkeys, were killed in North Carolina, according to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

It exceeds poultry losses two years ago in Hurricane Matthew, it said.

An estimated 5,500 pigs died in the hurricane, the department said.

Animals rescued from flood waters following Hurricane Florence

One of the largest poultry producers in North Carolina, Sanderson Farms, lost 1.7 million chickens on its farms.

Around 60 of its 880 production chicken broiler houses have flooded, the company said.

Hurricane Florence - In pictures

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Additionally, 30 Sanderson farms that house more than six million chickens around Lumberton, North Carolina, remain isolated by floodwater and out of reach feed trucks – with the number of dead chickens expected to increase.

Florence was the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season and originated from a strong tropical wave that emerged off the west coast of Africa at the end of August.

Florence was the first major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season (REUTERS)
Reuters

Despite making landfall as a weakened category one hurricane, Florence still had enough wind speed to uproot trees and cause widespread power outages throughout the Carolinas.

At least 40 deaths were attributed to the storm, along with damage currently estimated at more than $17 billion (£12.8bn).

“I am also pleased that our assets were not significantly damaged by the hurricane. While the storm’s impact on our live inventories and live production process will have an impact on the Company’s capacity and volume over the next two months, none of the losses sustained will be long term,” said Joe Sanderson, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Sanderson Farms.

There has also been widespread power failures and damaged or flooded roads – making it difficult to transport feed to livestock operations and to bring fuel in to run backup generators at poultry houses.

Meanwhile, swine losses in North Carolina are estimated at 5,500 due to the storm, according to state veterinarian Dr Doug Meckes.

Trump: Florence was 'wettest from the standpoint of water'

Corn and tobacco grower Larry Wooten said the hardest-hit crop by Florence’s heavy rain and wind was tobacco that was left in the field.

He told CNBC: "Tobacco was only about 50 percent out of the field and so it was probably the most impacted of any of the crops we had out”.

Around 50 per cent of the tobacco produced in the US comes from North Carolina – with tobacco production representing $724 million (£548m) to the state’s economy last year alone.