Sarah Torres never anticipated that her cows would be feeling the effects of Hurricane Helene a year later.
Torres, a family dairy farmer at Cresthaven Farms in Grayson County, made preparations ahead of the storm that impacted Southwest Virginia in late September 2024.
The main goal was to protect the farm’s approximately 150 dairy cows from the anticipated wind and rain. The farm is on a slope, so the animals were unlikely to be directly harmed by flooding from the remnants of Helene, which ultimately dropped more than 10 inches of rain on Grayson County.
“We knew that it was coming and so we had done what we were able to do to kind of prepare — which is pretty much impossible, to really be prepared,” Torres said.
As the storm intensified, the cattle were sheltered in a pack barn.
“They didn’t seem to even know anything was going on. … They were just eating away and the storm was raging all around them, but they were perfectly safe,” she said.
The rain eventually passed as the storm moved on, but the challenges for the cows of Cresthaven Farams were just beginning.
When Helene arrived, the farm was halfway through harvesting corn silage to feed the herd. The crop already was poor because of dry weather earlier in the year, and it was stored in a silo, uncovered and exposed to the downpour.
“We could protect them from the winds and the rains, but we couldn’t protect them from the long-lasting effects it had on our feed,” Torres said.
After the storm passed, Torres’ suspicions were confirmed: The feed was ruined by mold. Federal assistance later helped the farm purchase enough to get the quantity that the herd needed, but the quality wasn’t there, she said.
Although the cows “held their own” when it came to producing milk in the coming months, their health worsened when the heat and humidity of this summer set in, Torres said.
Cresthaven Farms has spent a lot of money on medicine treating sick cows and has lost a lot of money dumping milk from those treated animals, she said.
With the cows still on the mend, Cresthaven Farms chose not to participate in this year’s Grayson County Ag and Art Adventure, an annual self-guided tour of local farms that was held earlier this month.
“We knew that the feed wasn’t good, but I don’t think we anticipated that a full year later we were still really going to be affected by this,” she said.
‘If you know where to look, you still see some scars’
Cresthaven is one of a number of farms across Southwest Virginia still dealing with the impacts of the catastrophic storm that swept through the region a year ago after making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane.
The Virginia Cooperative Extension calculated that more than 3,600 farms in 21 Virginia counties and cities, mostly in the southwestern part of the state, saw about $160 million all together in damage from the storm.
Of that, Grayson County reported $61 million, more than any other single locality. Wythe County was next on that list at about $23 million, while Smyth County was third with about $18 million.
When factoring in not just direct losses but also reduced future income and the ripple effect to the regional economy, the total could reach up to $630 million, according to a Virginia Tech economic analysis.
Across Helene’s entire path, officials blame the storm for nearly $80 billion in damage and 250 direct or indirect deaths in seven states. Of those deaths, two were in Virginia. More than 100 were in North Carolina.
In Southwest Virginia, Helene destroyed numerous barns, sheds and fences. It ruined crops, hay and timber. It killed livestock.
A year later, many farmers have resumed regular operations. Others are still recovering. Even those who have essentially gone back to normal still may have piles of debris, downed trees and damaged fences yet to be checked off their to-do lists.
“Places that had the most severe damage are still working and will be probably for another year or more,” said Kevin Spurlin, an extension agent for Grayson County.
Some lingering signs of the storm are subtle.
“I tell people, if somebody drove through Grayson County now, a year later, they may look around like, ‘I can’t really tell much happened,’” Spurlin said. “But they didn’t see the mountains of brush and debris that was hauled off and piled up and chipped or burned. If you know where to look, you still see some scars from it.”
For example, some areas along the New River that were green fields before Helene aren’t green anymore after the water level rose and receded.
“Somebody that lived here would know that,” said Spurlin, who grew up on a dairy farm in Grayson County and has been an extension agent for 19 years. “Somebody just passing through probably would look over there and say, ‘Oh, cool, that’s a sandy beach along the bank of the New River.’ Well, that didn’t exist a year ago.”
Smyth County farmer, son rebuilt after storm
After the storm, John Goodwin, a cattle farmer, went to where his son, Clint, has a farm nearby between Chilhowie and Marion in Smyth County.
At first, they couldn’t get to the property because officials were concerned about the safety of a bridge, John Goodwin said.
When they made it there the next day, they found that the storm had taken out a fence that held in about 60 steers. They moved the herd across the road, but Goodwin said they lost three or four cattle.
They began rebuilding the fence that evening.
“I guess for the next four to five weeks that’s about all we did,” he said.
The field where the cattle had been was full of rocks washed up by a creek that runs through the property.
A friend brought construction equipment, but even after hauling out dozens of truckloads of rock, some of it is still there, Goodwin said.
“You just about have to see it to believe it, and then you probably wouldn’t believe the amount of rock that come out of that creek,” he said.
The Goodwins had about 350 bales of hay in a field along the river nearby.
“When we got there Saturday morning, there was no hay at all in that field,” Goodwin said.
Many farmers lost hay, either from it being washed away or simply waterlogged.
In the months after Helene, donations of feed, hay and other supplies came pouring in to help.
“It came from all over Virginia,” said Spurlin, the extension agent. “A lot of farm groups in Virginia sent stuff to us. And we were so appreciative of that. But we also had stuff that came from outside the state.”
Farmers looking ahead to the next year
Besides donations, farmers relied on other help to get back on their feet, whether it was private insurance, government assistance or just neighbors looking out for neighbors.
Farmers used programs through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Farm Service Agency, such as the Emergency Conservation Program that helps agricultural producers restore farmland impacted by natural disasters.
In October, Virginia announced a program offering low-interest microloans for small agricultural and forestry businesses impacted by Helene.
In July, the USDA announced Virginia will receive nearly $61 million for a block grant program to cover Helene-related agricultural losses that haven’t been addressed by other programs.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which is administering the program, began taking applications on Monday and will continue to do so for 45 days, through Nov. 6. Agricultural producers in 27 localities are eligible.
Andy Overbay, a cooperative extension agent for Smyth County, said that forestry damage alone could account for far more than the $61 million available through the latest program.
“I’m almost certain that we have grossly underestimated the timber loss. … It was hard to estimate, just because you can drone-flight an area and get an idea, but when Helene happened there were still leaves on the trees so you couldn’t see anything,” Overbay said. “This winter, this last December, January, driving around — oh my gosh, this is even worse than I expected.”
As bad as things were, they could have been even worse — a fact that’s not lost on many.
“I think there’s a realization with a lot of folks that maybe we lost a lot because we had a lot to lose, and we should think more about how we’ve been blessed than how we’ve been burdened,” Overbay said.
Torres, of Cresthaven Farms, expressed a similar sentiment.
It was just a few weeks ago that she finished cleaning up debris from an old, unused calf barn that Helene destroyed.
A shed with a damaged roof has been patched with plastic since the storm. Replacement materials recently arrived, and Torres said she hopes to get that roof fixed as soon as possible.
Some of her fences still have downed trees on them.
“When all that happened, it was so absolutely overwhelming,” she said. “It was really hard to prioritize, like where do you start?”
Still, Torres characterized the damage at Cresthaven Farms as relatively minor.
“I do want people to know how blessed we feel,” she said.
Now, Torres is looking ahead to the next year. She’s eager for higher-quality feed and healthier cows.
“Our corn is beautiful this year, praise God,” she said. “We’re looking forward to better days.”