Tag Archives: Hurricane Helene

Georgia Blueberry Growers See Bumper Crop as Drought Boosts Quality

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Manor, GA |

Georgia’s blueberry growers are having a season worth celebrating. Both the quantity and quality of this year’s harvest have exceeded expectations — and surprisingly, the historically dry conditions that have plagued much of the state’s agriculture this year deserve much of the credit.

“This year’s berries look really good. Honestly, this is some of the best quality we’ve had in years,” said Alex Cornelius of Cornelius Farms. “Mother Nature has been good to us. It’s been a drought, and during a drought, the quality is always better. When it’s wet — particularly in South Georgia where it’s humid — fungus, disease pressure, pest pressure, everything is just worse. And blueberries, if you get too much rain, they’ll split and cause problems.”

DODGING THE FREEZE

Growers also caught a break on the weather front when a damaging February freeze that hit Florida farms hard largely spared operations further north in Georgia.

“The February first freeze hit Florida so hard, and it did affect some farms with early varieties that were sticking out pretty bad,” Cornelius said. “But we were blessed that it did not affect our farm. The later freeze that came along was minimal.”

A MUCH-NEEDED BOOST AFTER HELENE

The timing of this bumper crop couldn’t be better. Many growers in the region are still working to recover financially from the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene — and for Cornelius Farms, that recovery has been a years-long process.

“Helene took out a hundred and twenty acres of our production. We first planted those plants, and then in 2022 they got wiped out with Helene and we went back and replanted them again,” Cornelius said. “So we’re four or five years into no return on that hundred and twenty acres. That’s been pretty devastating to us and all the farmers in this area.”

A REGION BUILT ON BLUEBERRIES

The stakes are high for this part of the state, which dedicates more than eighteen hundred acres to blueberry production this season alone. For operations like Cornelius Farms — which has been growing blueberries for more than thirty-five years — keeping the entire process in house has proven to be a key competitive advantage.

“When you have your own packing facility, if the quality is poor, you can focus on it more. You can respond to what the market needs — different sized packs, different deadlines. It’s a constant change,” Cornelius said. “But when you have your own facility, you can react.”

DEMAND KEEPS GROWING

That adaptability is increasingly important as consumer demand for blueberries continues to rise, driven by a decade of positive press around the fruit’s health benefits.

“The positive health benefits have really grown our business,” Cornelius said. “We continue planting new varieties and new breeder programs everywhere to improve what we put in the ground — to make a better berry, better taste, and a better result for the consumer.”

For Georgia’s blueberry growers, this season offers more than just a strong harvest. It’s a much-needed sign that after years of setbacks, the industry is resilient and moving forward.

By: Damon Jones

Montgomery County Forester Matthew O’Connor Named Georgia Forester of the Year

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Ailey, GA |

For Matthew O’Connor, becoming a forester was never simply a career choice — it was a lifelong passion rooted in family, community, and stewardship. That dedication has now earned him one of the highest honors in his field: Georgia Forester of the Year from the Georgia Forestry Commission.

“I grew up around forestry. I grew up on a tree farm working with my dad, so I’ve been in forestry pretty much all my life,” O’Connor said. “When I went to the University of Georgia, I learned they had a really good forestry program. I got into the school, graduated with a forestry degree, and then had the privilege of coming to work with the Georgia Forestry Commission straight out of college. I’ve been here since, and I’ve just worked my way up to the position I’m in now.”

MORE THAN MANAGING TREES

As O’Connor explains, the role of a forester extends well beyond simply managing timber. It’s about building lasting relationships with landowners, promoting responsible stewardship, and ensuring Georgia’s forests remain healthy and productive for generations to come.

“As a forester with the Georgia Forestry Commission, we work with private landowners across the state — and that could be anywhere from getting trees planted back all the way to that final harvest,” O’Connor said. “We get to spend a lot of time with our private landowners, with federal partners, through various programs, and just trying to continue to foster good stewardship of our forests and help them be productive and healthy throughout the state.”

A LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY AFTER HELENE

While that work is important year-round, it has taken on added urgency in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, as foresters across Georgia continue helping landowners navigate the long recovery from the storm’s devastation.

“There’s still a long road to recovery. There are a lot of sites that still have a lot of debris on them that have not been reforested yet — this is a many-year recovery effort,” O’Connor said. “While a lot of sites have been salvaged, cleaned up, and are getting planted back right now, there’s still a lot of acreage that still needs to be cleaned up and reforested and get back into productive forestry. That’s where the Georgia Forestry Commission is continuing to serve our landowners, trying to help all those in the path of the hurricane get back on their feet and hopefully back in the right direction.”

SERVING THE COMMUNITY HE GREW UP IN

For O’Connor, the most rewarding part of the job isn’t the recognition — it’s the opportunity to serve the people and places he’s known his entire life.

“My favorite part of the job is just getting out and meeting private landowners and being able to serve them. I get to work in an area I grew up in — with people I grew up going to church with, or saw at the local store,” he said. “Being able to serve my community and continue to foster good forest management throughout this area is really rewarding. Trying to help others, serve others, be a blessing unto others — that’s what I really get the most out of, and trying to help continue this legacy of good forestry throughout this area.”

For the Georgia Forestry Commission, O’Connor represents exactly the kind of forester the state’s landowners depend on — someone who brings not just expertise, but genuine care for the land and the people who call it home.

By: John Holcomb

Hurricane Helene’s Devastation and Recovery: Improving Rural Power

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Waynesboro, GA |

Hurricane Helene is a storm that certainly will not be forgotten, as it was a storm that caused more devastation than ever seen as it ripped through the heart of rural Georgia, destroying anything in its path, including critical infrastructure such as the power grid.

“Hurricane Helene was the most devastating storm to hit Georgia Power ever. Many people remember the damage that was caused by Hurricane Michael, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Matthew. Hurricane Helene actually did much more damage than those three storms combined. Hurricane Matthew took down about 2000 power poles – Hurricane Helene took down twelve thousand,” says Kim Greene, Georgia Power CEO.

Though the destruction was no doubt overwhelming, Kim says they immediately went to work restoring the more than one million customers without power, but says they didn’t just work to restore the grid, they worked to restore it better than it was before.

“In many cases in this storm, we weren’t just restoring power, we were rebuilding the grid. The grid had been so terribly damaged that we actually had to start all over, and when you do that, you have the opportunity in some cases, for example, instead of using a wooden pole, you might be able to use a concrete or a steel pole. So you have a more resilient system. We also have upgraded much of our equipment and are in the process of doing that across the state. It really does give us an opportunity to make improvements to our grid that we would normally have been planning to do anyway and we’ll just do it while we’re out there restoring after the storm damage,” says Greene.

Though most will never notice the improvements on a day-to-day basis, the technology can have a big impact by increasing efficiency when nature strikes.

“You see transformers everywhere. A lot of people know what transformer is, but there’s other devices, like sectionializers and re-closures, trip savers. Those type devices are what allows us to keep the power on in a more timely manner, opposed to where you may have just a fuse blow in and your power stays out until somebody can come fix it; a re-closer and a trip saver device that’s on these poles; these automatically restore power,” says Denver Barrett, Georgia Power Engineering Rep.

According to Barrett, these improvements and investments are essential for everyone, but especially those in rural parts of the state that tend to be at the edge of service areas.

“What we do is we go around our areas, rural areas, where in the past, you just don’t see equipment like that. Usually you see that in kind of technology in your more populated areas. We’re trying to focus on our more rural areas. Those customers matter, they’re just as important as everybody else. A lot of our farmers, with their pivots and irrigation systems, they’re at the end of these lines in these rural areas. That’s where we’re trying to get a lot of this system implemented, so we can have quicker restoration time and just provide them with a more reliable system,” says Barrett.

By: John Holcomb