Local farmers still recovering after Hurricane Helene

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JEFF DAVIS COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) – The devastation facing poultry farmers in southeast Georgia is heartbreaking to see firsthand.

Some losing everything. Chicken houses completely flattened after Helene barreled through the area.

Van Wooten, a Jeff Davis County commissioner, has lost nine chicken houses.

He’s been a poultry farmer for over 30 years.

He showed us how his entire livelihood is gone, the legacy he was waiting to pass on to his family one day, and all of his retirement- lost to this storm.

He says it would cost millions to rebuild.

Wooten says he doesn’t know where to go from here. He’s asking the federal government to step in and help farmers like himself who have lost it all.

“That’s what just happened to us, that’s our 401k in our poultry houses, that’s our assets. And it’s gone now, it’s a big pile of rubble. That money that comes in every year, that’s gone. It’s not going to exist anymore. We have to have something to start over with and at 63 years old its going to be hard to start over,” said Wooten.

Without insurance, only certain grant funds are available for farmers recovering from the storm.

Wooten says he has spoken with the Department of Agriculture, along with the offices of senators Warnock and Ossoff.

The Georgia commissioner of agriculture Tyler Harper released the following statement to WTOC: