The National Hurricane Center warned of flash floods and “prolonged significant river flooding” in the Carolinas following up to 40 inches of rainfall in southern North Carolina and 20 inches in western North Carolina and northern South Carolina from tropical storm Florence. The North Carolina Pork Council said initial reports indicated hog farms “have not experienced substantial widespread impacts” but there was the threat of “historic, 1,000-year flooding…across multiple counties over the next several days.”
The hog industry saw minimal damage from Hurricane Matthew in October 2016, when record rainfall flooded manure lagoons on 14 hogs farms and partially breached a lagoon on a farm that was idle. Some 2,800 hogs and 1.8 million chickens and turkeys died as a result of Matthew. Hurricane Floyd inundated 55 hog lagoons and breached six of them in 1996, prompting a state program to shut down lagoons in the floodplain.
“On-farm reports indicate sporadic and minor wind damage to structures,” said the pork council on Saturday afternoon. “Rainfall amounts across the region have not exceeded the available capacity of farm lagoons on whole across the industry.”
Before Florence arrived, the group said farmers in the major hog-producing regions of the state could handle more than 25 inches of rain, “with many reporting capacity volumes far beyond that.” More than 3,750 hog lagoons did not flood after Matthew, it said.
Green groups say there flooding of livestock barns or manure lagoons would mean water contamination and potential health threats. The hog industry and environmentalists have jostled for years over the impact of the large feeding operations. Neighbors of North Carolina farms won three lawsuits in a row this summer that alleged large farms created a nuisance because of noise, insect, and unbearable odors.
North Carolina ranks second in hog production and third in broiler chickens nationally. Environmental groups say there are 6,500 industrial-size hog, poultry and dairy farms across the state. The heaviest concentration of hogs in the nation is housed in southeastern North Carolina, they say.