Published 11:17 am Monday, August 10, 2026 Nearly two years after Hurricane Helene unleashed flooding and fierce winds across the South, some Georgia farmers say they still haven’t received compensation for damages, despite efforts from both sides of the political aisle. Newman Pryor, of Pryor Farms, said his pecan trees took a terrible beating from Hurricane Helene in 2024. (Photo courtesy of Pryor Farms) Newman Pryor remembers the night the storm hit. He runs Pryor farms, growing pecans and row crops across four east Georgia counties: Screven, Effingham, Bulloch and Jenkins. “It was much scarier than we anticipated it to be because they predicted it to go more to the west,” he said. “They were saying it was going to go to Atlanta, which would be well to the west of us, and it wasn’t going to be all that bad. I knew we were going to get some wind from it, but I didn’t think it was going to be nearly what we ended up with.” Pryor said his operation, particularly his pecan trees, took heavy wind damage. “It just destroyed the trees, tore them up, put a bunch of limbs on the ground, knocked down power lines and stuff like that,” he said. “We were not even able to process our pecans that year because it destroyed our electric infrastructure, so we couldn’t even process the pecans. We had to outsource that.” Pryor Farms wasn’t unique. The hurricane created at least $5.5 billion in agricultural and timber losses, according to the University of Georgia. But Pryor said he expected…
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