Photo courtesy of Kim Jones
By Clint Thompson
Three hurricanes – Debby, Helene and Milton – left a devastating and expensive toll on Florida’s agricultural industry.
Christa Court, University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Economic Impact Analysis Program (EIAP) director, confirmed that following the financial assessment of Hurricane Milton the cumulative total of all three storms topped $400 million.
“The way that we assessed these storms and made those adjustments along the way, we can sum those estimates of losses together, and we can say that the cumulative agricultural production losses in Florida for the 2024 hurricane season are estimated to be between $402.3 million and $975.8 million,” Court said.
Debby was a Category 1 storm when it made landfall on Aug. 5 with an estimated damage value of $170 million of agricultural losses. Helene was a Category 4 when it made landfall on Sept. 26 with a value range of $40.3 million to $162.2 million. Milton was a Category 3 storm when it made landfall on Oct. 9 and had a damage value range of $190.4 million to $642.7 million.