Hurricane Irene causes huge damage to U.S. cotton and corn

On August 27, after Hurricane Irene raged, US rural peninsula and Tidewater county growers reported that corn and cotton losses were estimated at more than US$9 million.

Earlier this year, the price of cotton hit a record high, and cotton is now being destroyed. Many cotton fields in the Isle of Wight and Surry County have been flattened by the island. Irene Gale also razed the cornfields in the entire southeast of Virginia.

According to the preliminary report, Haymore, the director of the Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry, estimated that Hurricane Irene had caused a loss of $60 million or more in the industrialization of agriculture in Virginia. This is a conservative estimate, he said, according to the assessment of local institutions, and the additional loss of the farmers when they began to harvest, the loss caused by the hurricane is expected to be greater.