Hurricane Gustav caused an estimated $372 million in damages to Louisiana crops and $46 million in damages to the state's fisheries, agriculture officials said yesterday.
With 110-mph winds and up to 20 inches of rain, last week's storm flattened fields and overflowed crawfish and catfish ponds. The Louisiana State University AgCenter in Baton Rouge estimated the total damages at $419 million.
Because the storm traveled far into central and north Louisiana, Gustav caused more harm to that state's farmbelt industries than Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Officials expected nearly 15 percent of the soybean crop and 11 percent of the corn crop to be destroyed. Among the other hardest-hit crops were cotton, sweet potatoes and sugar cane.
Fisheries and aquaculture damages were expected to be largest for the alligator, shrimp, crab and oyster industries. Preliminary estimates put damages to the shrimp industry at $22 million and $5 million for oyster fishermen.
