Calhoun County, SC (WLTX) - For the third straight year, local farmers have to deal with the wrath of mother nature.
The 2015 flood and last year's hurricane nearly destroyed the livelihoods of farmers across the state. Now, they have to deal with Irma's path of destruction.
Farmer Drake Perrow said they were bracing for the rain, but got more wind than anything else. His cotton plants were beaten down and soaked.
"Once the plant gets lighter, hopefully it'll stand back up" he said. The mess is changing the way they harvest these crops. "Normally we use ground equipment to defoliate or take the leaves off this cotton, well you can't even tell where the rows are now so it'll all have to be done by crop dusters" he said.
"We dodged a bullet" said Charles Davis Jr. who works with farmers through Clemson Extension and says cotton is the leading crop for Calhoun County, where this damage happened.
"From what I've seen, the farmers I've talked to, I think we'll come out of this a little banged up but financially we'll be okay" he said. Something Drake Perrow echoes.