VALDOSTA — Authorities are still assessing the damage a recent hurricane caused to crops in Lowndes County.

“We are still gathering the numbers,” said Joshua Dawson, a Lowndes County extension agent.

The county was slammed hard by Hurricane Helene, which came ashore in north Florida Sept. 26 as a Category 4 storm before moving inland across South Georgia.

Virtually every crop in the ground in Lowndes County took a hit, including peanuts, timber, cotton and vegetable crops, Dawson said. The current growing season in Lowndes County includes cotton, peanuts, pecans and vegetables, he said.

“There are some places where some crops will not be as productive as they should have been,” Dawson said.

Even cattle production suffered as downed trees destroyed fencing, he said.

Without exact numbers, the extension agent said he wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of Lowndes County’s growers were affected.

How much money the damage translates into is also still being tallied, Dawson said, though the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences estimates losses statewide at $6.46 billion.

In a letter to congressmen asking for relief, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler J. Harper said more than 320,000 Georgians are involved in agriculture, which brings $83 billion to the state’s economy each year.

“Hurricane Helene could not have come at a worse time for our farmers and producers, who are already faced with record setting drops in net farm income caused by inflation, high input costs, labor shortages, global competition, and low commodity prices,” Tyler said in the letter.