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A CHRISTMAS tree farm has been left destitute by historic flooding, and the owner warns holiday cheer may be set back for years.
Hurricane Helene tore through the North Carolina farm in September, uprooting 80,000 trees and ruining a family’s legacy.
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“It’s going to be a tremendous amount of money to strip all this land back down, to take the dirt and start all over,” owner Graham Avery told CBS affiliate WJHL.
“It’s millions of dollars, and it’s many years. It’s just awful.”
Devastating pictures show Trinity Tree Company at Avery Farms left in shambles after brutal winds downed trees and uprooted the six-generation property.
The farm is located in the Appalachian region of the state, about two hours northwest of Charlotte, and was one of the hardest hit in the country.
Avery Farms has been selling trees for three generations, and each one goes for about 30 to 55 dollars whole sale.
It’s a “tremendous amount of money” that the family will have to live without, and there’s no clear end in side, Avery said.
“Even the ones that are still standing and they’re green, they’re dead,” the devastated owner said.
“They’re going to have to go. Everything you see that has had water on it will be bulldozed.”
Avery Farms is nestled in a valley and enjoys idyllic views of the Appalachian Mountains, but the location also puts the farmers at risk of flooding.
Helene not only brought sheets of rain that submerged the crops but also pollution that poisoned the ground and rotted the trees to their cores.
Avery speculates it will take 15 long years before they’re ready to sell healthy Christmas trees again.
“We’ve got to start over,” the brave farmer said.
Several agricultural specialists told Avery there was nothing the family could do other than start over.
However, the courageous farmer refuses to let the tragedy get him down and looks forward to bringing the Christmas trees back better than ever.
What is a hurricane and how do they form?
A HURRICANE is another name for a tropical cyclone – a powerful storm that forms over warm ocean waters near the equator.
Those arising in the Atlantic or eastern Pacific are called hurricanes, while those in the western Pacific and Indian Ocean are dubbed typhoons or cyclones.
North of the equator they spin anticlockwise because of the rotation of the Earth, however, they turn the opposite way in the southern hemisphere.
Cyclones are like giant weather engines fuelled by water vapor as it evaporates from the sea.
Warm, moist air rises away from the surface, creating a low-pressure system that sucks in air from surrounding areas – which in turn is warmed by the ocean.
As the vapour rises it cools and condenses into swirling bands of cumulonimbus storm clouds.
The system grows and spins faster, sucking in more air and feeding off the energy in seawater that has been warmed by the sun.
At the center, a calm “eye” of the storm is created where cooled air sinks towards the ultra-low pressure zone below, surrounded by spiraling winds of warm air rising.
The faster the wind, the lower the air pressure at the center, and the storm grows stronger and stronger.
Tropical cyclones usually weaken when they hit land as they are no longer fed by evaporation from the warm sea.
But they often move far inland – dumping vast amounts of rain and causing devastating wind damage – before the “fuel” runs out and the storm peters out.
Hurricanes can also cause storm surges when the low air pressure sucks the sea level higher than normal, swamping low-lying coasts.
“My grandpa started this and that was his legacy,” he said.
“Even if it bankrupts us, we will strip it all down.
“This is what we’re good at. This is what we know. And this is what we’re doing to do.”
For this year, Avery Farms will be selling a few spare trees and wreaths.
Helene also stole people’s homes and cars, as some described their properties as a war zone.
Some celebrities even said they suffered “total loss” from the tragic storms.
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