Farmers are still reeling months after Hurricane Helene ravaged crops across the South

LYONS, Ga. (AP) — Twisted equipment and snapped tree limbs still litter Chris Hopkins’ Georgia farm more than two months after Hurricane Helene made its deadly march across the South.

An irrigation sprinkler system about 300 feet (92 meters) long lay overturned in a field, its steel pipes bent and welded joints broken. The mangled remains of a grain bin sat crumpled by a road. On a Friday in early December, Hopkins dragged burly limbs from the path of the tractor-like machine that picks his cotton crop six rows at a time.

“I have wrestled with lots of emotions the past two months,” said Hopkins, who also grows corn and peanuts in rural Toombs County, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Savannah. “Do we just get through this one and quit? Do we build back? It is emotionally draining.”

Hopkins is among farmers across the South who are still reeling from Helene’s devastation. The storm made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a major Category 4 storm and then raced north across Georgia and neighboring states.

Experts estimate the cost to farmers, timber growers and other agribusinesses from Florida to Virginia will reach more than $10 billion. The toll includes ravaged crops, uprooted timber, wrecked farm equipment and mangled chicken houses, as well as indirect costs such as lost productivity at cotton gins and poultry processing plants.

For cotton growers like Hopkins, Helene hit just as the fall harvest was starting. Many put most cleanup on hold to try to salvage what remained of their crops.

Georgia farmers suffered storm losses of at least $5.5 billion, according to an analysis by the University of Georgia. In North Carolina, a state agency calculated farmers suffered $3.1 billion in crop losses and recovery costs after Helene brought record rainfall and flooding. Separate economic analyses of farm damage tallied losses of up to $630 million in Virginia, $452 million in South Carolina and $162 million in Florida.

Hopkins figures he lost half the cotton on his 1,400 acres (560 hectares).

“We were at the most vulnerable stage we could be,” he said. “The lint was open and fluffy and hanging there, waiting to be defoliated or picked. About 50% of the harvestable lint ended up on the ground.”

Even with insurance, Hopkins said, he won't recoup an estimated $430,000 in losses from his cotton crop alone. That doesn't include the cost of debris removal, repairing or replacing damaged machinery and the loss of two small pecan orchards uprooted by the storm.

The storm ripped through blooming cotton fields, pecan orchards laden with nuts and fields where fall vegetables like cucumbers and squash awaited picking. Hundreds of large poultry houses used to raise thousands of chickens at a time got destroyed.

Farmers far from Helene's center weren't spared, as tropical-storm force winds reached outward up to 310 miles (499 kilometers).

“It was staggering,” said Timothy Coolong, a University of Georgia horticulture professor. “This may be just too much for some folks."

Helene was one of the deadliest U.S. hurricanes in nearly two decades, killing more than 200 people. It left more than 100,000 homes damaged or destroyed across the South.

Georgia's government in November diverted $100 million that had been set aside for construction projects or paying off existing debt to fund emergency loans to farmers and cleanup in Helene's aftermath. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has made additional storm relief a priority for the upcoming legislative session.

But Georgia's constitution prohibits using state funds to give direct disaster aid to individuals and private businesses.

In Congress, a new plan late Friday that would temporarily fund federal operations included billions in disaster aid to farmers.

“We need help, but we need it quick," said Jeffrey Pridgen, a fifth-generation farmer who raises chickens in south Georgia’s Coffee County.

Pridgen operated a dozen poultry houses, each large enough to raise up to 20,000 chickens at a time. Helene destroyed four of them, along with thousands of chickens. Only one of Pridgen's houses remains in working condition, the others having been badly damaged.

Pridgen said new chicken houses will cost about $450,000 apiece. Because most of his were decades old, he expects insurance to cover just half the cost.

“I was looking at retirement, but I lost my retirement and my income in one day,” said Pridgen, 62. "It’ll be two years before we get fully operational again. I’m basically starting over.”

Georgia’s poultry industry took an estimated $683 million hit, with farmers having to rebuild about 300 chicken houses and repair hundreds more.

The poultry processing plant that relies on Pridgen and other storm-impacted farmers for chickens is now operating just four days per week, he said.

“Now for at least a year, perhaps a little bit longer, we’re in rebuilding mode," said Mike Giles, president of the Georgia Poultry Federation. "That affects production in an area for an extended period of time.”

Helene's devastation shouldn't have much impact on consumer prices because crops grown elsewhere can make up for most shortages, said Michael Adjemian, a University of Georgia professor of agricultural economics. Pecans are one possible exception. Georgia is responsible for roughly one-third of U.S. production.

“In most cases, even a terrible storm like this is going to have a relatively small impact,” Adjemian said. "And maybe it's not even noticeable, depending on the product.”

Helene cost Georgia cotton farmers roughly one-third of their crop, with direct and indirect losses valued at $560 million. Some were still recovering from Hurricane Michael in 2018.

Cotton growers also were facing low prices this harvest season of around 70 cents per pound (0.45 kilograms), said Taylor Sills, executive director of the Georgia Cotton Commission. That meant they needed a big yield to turn any profit.

“Times were awful, and then they got hit by a hurricane,” Sills said. "There are people who lost everything and there are people who didn’t. But everybody lost something."

Farmer Chris Hopkins observes cotton bolls before being harvested in a field he owns, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A cotton picker moves through Chris Hopkins' cotton field, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The cotton picker produced a large round bale of picked cotton, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A cotton picker moves through Chris Hopkins' cotton field, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Farmer Chris Hopkins stands in one of his cotton fields before being harvested, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A cotton picker works in a field of cotton, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A cotton picker moves through Chris Hopkins' cotton field, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A cotton picker works in a field of cotton, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A cotton picker moves through Chris Hopkins' cotton field as a round bale sits, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A cotton picker works in a field of cotton, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, near Lyons, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed legislation early Saturday to boost Social Security payments for millions of people, pushing a longtime priority for former public employees through Congress in one of its last acts for the year.

The bipartisan bill, which next heads to President Joe Biden, will eliminate longtime reductions to Social Security benefits for nearly 3 million people who receive pensions from work in federal, state and local government, or public service jobs like teachers, firefighters and police officers. Advocates say the Social Security Fairness Act rights a decades-old disparity, though it will also put further strain on Social Security Trust Funds.

The legislation has been decades in the making but the push to pass it came together in the final weeks — and was completed in the final hours — that lawmakers were in Washington before Congress resets next year. All Senate Democrats except one, as well as 23 Republicans, supported the push to bring it to a final vote in the Senate. The final vote was 76-20.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “very important for our retired teachers and firefighters and postal workers and police officers and so many other public servants who deserve their full Social Security benefits.”

The bill repeals two provisions — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that limit Social Security benefits for certain recipients if they receive retirement payments from other sources such as the public retirement program for a state or local government.

“Social Security is a bedrock of our middle class. It’s retirement security that Americans pay into and earn over a lifetime," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who has pushed for the proposal for years and will leave Congress after losing reelection.

He added that the current restrictions make “no sense. These workers serve the public. They protect our communities. They teach our kids. They pay into Social Security just like everyone else."

People who currently have reductions in their Social Security benefits under the exceptions would soon see a boost in their monthly payments. But those increased payments would also add an estimated $195 billion to federal deficits over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Social Security Trust Funds were already estimated to be unable to pay out full benefits beginning in 2035, and the change will hasten the program’s insolvency date by about half a year. A typical dual-income couple retiring in 2033 would see an additional $25,000 lifetime reduction in their benefits, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Many of the bill's opponents acknowledged that the current reductions are not fair to public service retirees, but said they could not support the bill when the entire program faces challenges.

“We caved to the pressure of the moment instead of doing this on a sustainable basis,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who opposed the bill.

The policy changes will also heap more work on the Social Security Administration when the agency is already at its lowest staffing level in 50 years. The agency currently has a staff of about 56,400 — the lowest level since 1972, according to an agency spokesperson — even as it serves more people than ever. The stopgap government funding bill also being considered late Friday did not include increased funding for the agency, which is currently in a hiring freeze.

Still, Republican supporters of the bill said there was a rare opportunity to address what they described as an unfair section of federal law that hurts public service retirees.

“They have earned these benefits. This is an unfair, inequitable penalty,” said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican.

GOP supporters of the bill also said they would return to work on larger fixes to Social Security. President-elect Donald Trump, however, has said he will not touch the benefits, even as his administration looks to make deep budget cuts elsewhere.

Senate Republicans are nonetheless working on ideas that would put the program on better financial footing, but also inevitably require a scale-back in benefits. One fiscal hawk, Sen. Rand Paul, pushed Friday for a proposal to gradually raise the Social Security retirement age to 70, although a vote to add that provision to the bill only received three votes in favor of it.

“There's so much riding on us getting this right and having the courage to fix Social Security over the next few years,” Tillis said. “We will rue the day that we failed to do it.”

The Capitol is pictured in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)