Drones assess ag damage in Georgia, support insurance-claim process

Hurricane Idalia made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Florida’s Gulf Coast on August 30, 2023. The storm entered Georgia at Brooks, Lowndes, and Echols counties with wind speeds around 90 miles per hour. Thousands of people were without power for up to a week. Agricultural structures and crops took a major hit. Barns and equipment sheds were missing roofs or completely destroyed. Pecan trees, timber, cotton, corn and vegetables were blown over, twisted in the fields or plastic over beds was ripped away. Yield losses were inevitable but needed to be assessed.

The University of Georgia Extension Emergency Preparedness Team has drones for crop damage assessments as part of a USDA/NIFA grant. The SDET Leader conducted 41 flights at 18 operations that covered over 13,000 acres. The combined Farm Gate Value for Lowndes, Echols, Lanier, and Berrien Counties is over $455 million.

Aerial images were most useful in areas with widespread damage, particularly fields where losses were not evident from ground-level photos and locations that were not accessible by car due to down power lines and trees. Drone photos were especially effective for viewing blown over trees and debris piles in large pecan orchards. Photos can help estimate the percentage of yield loss to secure aid for other agencies’ disaster programs/records such as USDA and the Department of Agriculture, be used as documentation of damage for insurance claims and assist growers in seeing crops they were physically unable to access at the time.

Project supported by Smith-Lever (3b&c) funds.