Louisiana Agricultural Impact of Storms Marco and Laura

By Avery Davidson

The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture

Hurricane Marco is on track to make landfall in Southeastern Louisiana Monday evening. Laura is expected to follow 48 hours later with landfall near the Sabine River, possibly as a category two hurricane. This happens as Louisiana farmers are harvesting rice, corn and soybeans and planting sugarcane. 

LSU Ag Center Climatologist and WAFB-TV Chief Meteorologist Jay Grymes said wind is a major factor with these storms, especially for Marco because of its expected track.

“We could see a prolonged run of tropical storm force winds with Marco,” said Grymes. “Since it's going to take a track that is essentially East to West or Southeast to Northwest once it makes landfall on Monday evening.

Despite the wind, rain will likely have the biggest impact on agriculture.

“I'm thinking that the weather service may be underplaying the rain estimates a bit, especially in the Western half of the state,” Grymes said in a telephone interview. “I would say in South Louisiana, you need to be thinking anywhere from five to upwards to 10 inches of rain widespread, over the four to five days, starting today and extending into Thursday early Friday. Even in North Louisiana, I would say, get ready for two to five or six inches, most of that coming from Laura. So this is going to be a prolonged double barrel whammy for almost the entire state.”

Two storms impacting Louisiana in the same year has some similarities to 2005 when Hurricane Katrina caused damage and flooding in the southeastern part of the state and Hurricane Rita brought storm surge and winds to Southwest Louisiana. However, Grymes said, those two storms hit 27 days apart. Forecasters say there will only be about 48 hours between landfalls for Marco and Laura.

“I think the closest timeframe we've got in terms of landfalls like this is something on the order of seven to 10 days,” Grymes said.  “And I don't believe that was two hurricanes. So, here we're talking about something that is certainly unprecedented and, unfortunately, we're not going to have any really significant recovery time after Marco before Laura comes in and does her dirty work.”