Picking up the Pieces

Co-op aid helping other co-ops recover
from ravages of Hurricane Katrina

By Donna Abernathy


Editor’s note: Abernathy is a cooperative communications consultant based in Murfreesboro, Tenn.


t age 54, Ben Burkett has lived through four major hurricanes in his native Mississippi. He hunkered down with his family when 1969’s Hurricane Camille cut a path of destruction and death through the state. But even that experience did not prepare the produce grower for the ravages of Katrina.

In mid-October, the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives leader was among the hundreds of thousands who were still picking up pieces of shattered lives and livelihoods in the wake of what is called the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. With winds in excess of 150 miles per hour and tides of more than 20 feet, Hurricane Katrina smashed into the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, pummeling 90,000 square miles of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

While much of the nation’s attention was focused on New Orleans in Katrina’s aftermath, a compelling story with rural cooperative roots was unfolding across the storm-ravaged landscape. From Burkett’s 38-member Indian Springs Farmers Association to the nation’s largest co-ops, CHS Inc. and Dairy Farmers of America, the storm wreaked havoc on the people and assets associated with member-owned businesses.

The homes of many co-op members and employees were destroyed. Farmer co-op members had barns, equipment and crops blown away. Electric cooperatives lost thousands of power poles that snapped like matchsticks in the storm.

As these coastal cooperatives struggled to recover, the sting of loss diminished as help and hope began arriving from co-ops across the country. An employee of hard-hit Coast Electric Power Association described it as a tale of “cooperative spirit at its best.”

Direct hit
“It was catastrophic. There are no words to describe what I saw. We were at ground zero,” said Coast Electric employee Melissa Bryant, struggling to explain what she witnessed in the hours after Katrina. The co-op’s three-county service area is the southwest Mississippi region that received the brunt of Katrina’s fury.

Coast Electric serves approximately 60,000 members on more than 5,900 miles of power line. Following the storm, some 30,000 poles and 10,000 transformers had to be replaced. Co-op management initially estimated it would take at least six weeks of work to restore power to most members.

Just three weeks later, 29,000 poles had been replaced and power was restored to 99 percent of members who were able to receive electric service. This “miracle” was performed by a crew of 3,200 co-op employees who represent 19 states and 125 electric co-op companies.

The feat was even greater considering that nearly 60 Coast Electric employees lost their own homes and belongings in the storm. Thirty had all of their personal vehicles destroyed, leaving them with no way to get to work. “We had linemen reporting for work who had literally nothing left but the shirts on their backs,” said a still-emotional Bryant, a communications specialist.

“This horrible situation and the great success we achieved in rebuilding our system in just three weeks gave me an opportunity to tell the world about the power of co-ops,” Bryant said as she reeled off a long list of donations and human support sister cooperatives had provided. “This is cooperative principle number six in action: cooperatives helping cooperatives.”

The cooperative spirit that accomplished work so quickly in the Coast Electric service area is now the subject of a Touchstone Energy Cooperative television commercial that is running nationwide.

A sobering thought remains, however. Nearly 10,000 Coast Electric members were still without power at press deadline for this publication (Oct. 17) because homes and buildings were either completely destroyed or too damaged to accept electricity. The co-op is building new lines to areas with the most severe damage. The cost to rebuild is staggering. The co-op spent $3 million a day for personnel and materials to restore power. The total cost for system restoration is projected at $100 million.

Down, but not out
Petal, Miss., is some 70 miles from the Gulf Coast. That’s normally a safe distance from the worst a Gulf Coast hurricane can dish out. But not this time. Several weeks after the storm, Petal-based Indian Springs Farmers Association’s only produce packing-house remained heavily damaged and without electricity to operate cold storage equipment. Members of this small fruit and vegetable marketing cooperative lost freshly picked inventory stored in the packing facility as well as crops in the field.

Nearly half of the co-op members are “completely wiped out,” said member Ben Burkett. “Fifty acres of watermelons are gone. Eggplants and jalapenos are stripped — all of it gone.” Worse than the damage to the building, Katrina blew away 65 percent of Indian Springs’ direct and commercial markets. New Orleans outlets and casinos in the Biloxi, Miss., area were primary customers.

Two weeks after the storm, members were left struggling to find ways to plant their next crop, essential to assuring the survival of their individual livelihoods as well as their member-owned business. “This is the optimum time to plant our squash, bell peppers and cucumbers, but we can’t get the inputs,” Burkett explained.

When word spread about of the desperate need for fuel, some Iowa co-op members came to the aid of Indian Springs members and other Mississippi growers. West Central Cooperative donated 15,000 gallons of soy biodiesel fuel to help their fellow farmers plant fall crops on time. Until its cold storage is again operational, Indian Springs members were trucking their remaining produce to a farmers’ market in Memphis, where another farmer co-op is sharing its space.

Farmer cooperatives from across the nation have stepped up to provide relief to those in hurricane-blasted areas. They have donated food, livestock feed, generators, fuel supplies and transportation. Farmer cooperatives, their employees and farmer members have directly contributed more than $1.2 million in hurricane relief, the National Council for Farmer Cooperatives reports.

Dairy devastation
More than 300 Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) members with about 25,000 cows in Louisiana’s “Florida parishes” (east of Baton Rouge, along Interstate 12) were severely crippled following Katrina’s landfall. Power outages, feed deficiencies, blocked roadways, structural destruction and inadequate milk storage amounted to an estimated $40 million in damages in the dairying area north of Lake Pontchartrain, according to DFA officials. The dairy co-op markets raw milk for an estimated 90 percent of the producers in the area.

Fellow DFA members and personnel came to the rescue of these dairy farmers. A cooperative-owned plant in Franklinton, La., became a crisis center, where members could turn for relief supplies. DFA members outside the hurricane-affected region sprang into action, securing cattle feed, delivering generators and arranging transportation for supplies.

Milk haulers carried chain saws, cutting their way through blocked roads. In the first two weeks following the disaster, DFA delivered approximately 100 industrial generators capable of powering members’ milking parlors and coolers.

The co-op also coordinated and delivered six loads of fuel to keep those generators running. Four weeks after the storm, 10 percent of the affected farms were still dependent on generators for power.

Back in business
For the most part, cooperative-owned facilities in the disaster-stricken areas were spared heavy damage. The nation’s largest nitrogen production facility — CF Industries’ (which was recently sold by its co-op owners) complex in Donaldsonville, La.— had resumed normal operations at 80 percent of its plants two weeks after the storm. In the same time frame, Land O’Lakes Purina Feed plants had power restored and mills were operating around the clock. CHS’ grain terminal in heavily flooded Myrtle Grove, La., also escaped serious damage, but was shut down for about four weeks while awaiting the return of power and employees.

Cooperative facilities operating at or near the Port of New Orleans have been slower to fully recover from the one-two punch of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Every year, about 50 percent of the corn and one-third of the soybeans exported by the United States float down the Mississippi River and its tributaries on barges, where it is off-loaded onto oceangoing ships. Progress in returning the port to full operations has been gradual, but continual. The Port of New Orleans announced the intent to be fully operational by Nov. 1.

Though damage to cooperative plants was not excessive, employee welfare continues to be a major concern for co-ops. A number of workers in both Louisiana and Mississippi lost their homes and possessions. Many are separated from families forced to evacuate from the storm-ravaged area. Despite this, co-ops have reported story after story of employees who have put aside their personal losses and worked day and night to help members recover.

Some co-ops are taking a direct approach to relief for these dedicated individuals. CHS Inc., which has more than 100 employees working in the affected area, has established a relief fund that is being equally disbursed among employees who need to rebuild homes and replace personal belongings. Through its DFA Cares program, DFA provided generators for employees’ homes as well as food and supplies.

As the horrors of Katrina ease with the passing days, cooperative members and employees are now shifting their focus from survival mode to rebuilding. Member-owned businesses will play a significant role in the recovery of this region where cooperative roots run deep. For Indian Springs members and others like them who are struggling to get on with their lives and livelihoods, a message on the Cooperative Development Foundation Web site says:

“Cooperatives are an important building block in the social and economic recovery. They provide infrastructure, access to credit and access to markets, all of which will be critical as the rural economies of these three states move from their dependence on the initial relief efforts in the aftermath of this disaster to long-term sustainable recovery.”






























































USDA hurricane-relief teams
active on multiple fronts


Editor’s note: Since press deadline for this magazine in mid-October,
Hurricane Wilma caused severe damage in southern Florida. USDA’s
response to that disaster is not reflected in the following article.


From efforts to keep grain shipments rolling, to finding emergency housing for hurricane evacuees and rescuing people and abandoned pets and livestock, more than 4,000 USDA employees engaged in hurricane relief-efforts in the Gulf Coast region have been delivering vital services.

USDA Rural Development has led the federal effort to provide housing for hurricane evacuees, has granted extensions on payments to home borrowers and is assisting rural utilities in rebuilding electrical, telecommunications and water systems. As of mid-October, Rural Development had placed about 5,000 evacuees in more than 1,500 housing units in 19 states and provided nearly 23,000 families with temporary loan-forbearance agreements on mortgage payments.

Rural Development loan specialists have helped staff Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) emergency response centers. To speed the process of helping victims, staff members were dispatched to the field with wireless, laptop-computers to access the Internet to assist victims with completing the FEMA benefits application process.

As with Hurricane Katrina, USDA Rural Development prepared a complete inventory of USDA-financed housing and other facilities impacted by Hurricane Rita. This includes properties financed through USDA’s Community Facilities, Housing and Business & Cooperative programs. Additionally, USDA has worked with numerous partners — including electrical co-ops, telecommunications providers and rural water associations — to implement existing disaster-recovery plans (which USDA requires to be in place for its borrowers).

USDA has taken numerous steps to reduce stress on the grain transportation system caused by Hurricane Katrina. These actions include assisting with the movement of barges of damaged corn from New Orleans; providing incentives for alternative grain storage; encouraging alternative shipping patterns to relieve pressure on New Orleans, and allowing producers to store USDA-owned corn on the farm with the option to purchase it.

Following are some examples of how some other USDA agencies are responding to the most deadly and costly hurricane season in the nation’s history: Additional information and updates about USDA’s hurricane-relief efforts are posted daily on the Web at: http://www.usda.gov.
























November/December Table of Contents