Florida agriculture losses between $78M and $371M from Hurricane Idalia, preliminary estimate says
Florida agriculture losses from Hurricane Idalia are estimated at between $78 million and $371 million, with producers also suffering widespread damage to such infrastructure as irrigation rigs and fences
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Florida agriculture losses from Hurricane Idalia are estimated at between $78 million and $371 million, with producers also suffering widespread damage to such infrastructure as irrigation rigs and fences, according to a preliminary report Thursday from the University of Florida.
The Category 3 hurricane came ashore Aug. 30 along Florida's Big Bend region with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph (205 kph), sweeping across rural areas that include crops such as peanuts and cotton as well as cattle, poultry and aquaculture operations.
Predicted losses for livestock are pegged at between $30.1 million and $123.4 million, according to the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences report. Estimates for field and row crop losses are between $30.7 million and $93.6 million, with greenhouse and nursery products accounting for between $4.7 million and $68.8 million.
Researchers said the wide ranges in these estimates will narrow as more on-the-ground assessments are completed. The storm's main farm impacts occurred in Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee and Taylor counties in an area between the Gulf of Mexico and the Georgia state line. Four people in Florida were killed during the hurricane, according to medical examiner reports to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“Each storm brings different windspeeds and rainfall, and even though our methods allow us to estimate a credible range of losses given certain characteristics of a storm, we still rely on
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