Tropical Storm Debby moved through Southeast Georgia yesterday with wind speeds reaching over 50 mph and dumping over 5″ of rain around the Valdosta area. Further East towards Waycross and Statesboro rainfall amounts near 8″ have been reported. Most areas throughout the pecan growing region of Georgia saw wind speeds reach up to around 25-40 mph. Rainfall amounts range from less than 1/10″ in the Western portions of South GA to 8-12″ to the east, with the south-central part of the state receiving anywhere from 3-5″ on average.
While certainly a problem for those impacted, overall, this has been a relatively benign storm for the Georgia pecan industry compared to recent Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. The worst damage from Debby that I have heard of to date has been along the southern tier of counties from Brooks into Lowndes County. A few large orchards are reporting the number of trees down in the range of 300-500, although most orchards have much less damage. While no estimates of crop loss have been officially determined at this point, the growers I have heard from in these areas have estimated around 10-15% crop loss from nuts being blown out of the trees. Most orchards in the state have experienced a few broken limbs and nuts blown from the trees.
Now that the ground in Eastern Georgia is saturated, there is concern over the potential for further tree loss throughout the day today as the winds wrap back around. This is how we lost many trees to Idalia last year. Additionally, the trees do not need to stand in saturated soil for more than a week or so at most at this point in the season, so we need this water in SE GA to move on out. It is possible that we do not yet see the full extent of nut loss as we often see damage to nuts beaten around in the wind and from broken stems at the point of nut attachment to the tree show up later. However; overall, the industry as a whole has been fortunate with this storm.
Below are a few photos I have received from growers reporting damage:
