While much of Louisiana’s sugarcane grows east of where Hurricane Laura landed, the wind and water still took a toll. This Week in Louisiana Ag introduces us to one farmer who saw his crop go underwater.
Ricky Gounsolin had almost all of his 3,000 acres of sugarcane flood, but it was not till after the storm had passed. He says that it is not just having the cane exposed to salt water but pumping the water out means pumping money out of his farm.
“We’re moving the water out; the tide is working with us, but it’s going to be a long road ahead,” he notes. “Several million gallons of water that’s on several thousand acres of land.”
Gounsolin goes on to say, “We’re faced with challenges with debris that floated into our crop; that’s going to be problematic for the harvest season... Currently we’re doing everything we can to save the crop, and people don’t realize but we’re looking at 2020 crop, that’s due to harvest in 30 days, and 2021 crop that’s 95 percent completed and planted. So, we’re fighting two years of crop.”
Eddie Lewis’s crop was mainly affected by the high winds, leaving a majority of his sugarcane bent.