Heavy crop losses reported in Southeast after frigid weather

In South Carolina, at least 90 percent of the peach crop was destroyed and officials said they would seek federal aid.

“This is comparable to a hurricane,” South Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers said of the damage to the state’s $40 million industry. “Growers say we’ll be fortunate to get 10 percent of a crop.”

In Georgia, farmers and agriculture officials were still assessing the damage, but the weekend freeze may have wiped out more than half the state’s peach crop.

“There’s no doubt we had damage,” said Joe McManus, a commodities specialist with the Georgia Farm Bureau. “It’s just a matter of to what extent. Peaches I’m hearing 50 (percent) plus.”

The freeze also killed off a large portion of Georgia’s $60 million blueberry crop.

“Most anything that was green got damaged,” said Danny Stanalan, extension coordinator for southeast Georgia’s Bacon County. “Our blueberries took a hard hit.”

Kathy Taylor, stone fruit horticulturist with the University of Georgia Extension Service, said damage to Georgia’s peach crop was wiped out in the northern part of the state.

Alabama and Kentucky were still compiling loss estimates, but Dave Rickey of the Alabama Farmers Federation said there were reports of heavy damage to fruit crops across the northern half of the state.

Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer has asked Gov. Ernie Fletcher to seek federal disaster relief, saying in a statement that apples and peaches there were “completely devastated.”