Louisiana Farm Bureau Members Unite to Help Ranchers Affected by Tornadoes During Beryl
By Avery J. Davidson
Louisiana Farm Bureau News
Members of the DeSoto, Caddo, Bossier and Claiborne Parish Farm Bureaus will deliver fencing materials to ranchers who suffered damage during Monday’s tornadoes as Tropical Storm Beryl made its way across Texas into Arkansas.
The Shreveport office of the National Weather Service issued 67 tornado warnings on July 8. NWS officials later confirmed 19 tornadoes touched down in the area, including at least one in DeSoto Parish.
Louisiana Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers State Committee member and DeSoto Parish rancher, Josh Gooden said the tornadoes damaged fences from the southwestern part of the parish up to the northwestern corner.
“It caused significant damage to many close by farmers,” said Gooden. “A lot of rural timber and pine plantations were damaged, along with many, many fences. I can't tell you how many miles of fences amongst the different farmers but, it was several miles of fences down and damaged.”
Gooden said with the generous donations of neighboring parish Farm Bureaus, he was able to buy a pallet of t-posts and a pallet of barbed wire. Representatives from each of those parishes plan to distribute the supplies Friday, July 12.
“We know of about eight or nine different stops that we've got planned,” Gooden said. “And if we see anybody along the way that we didn't know of who had damage, we're going to pull in, stop and visit with them and offer help. It definitely won't be enough to repair all their damages, but I believe it'll be well appreciated.”
Gooden said the reason he made more than 100 phone calls to put this donation together is because he doesn’t want to see any of his fellow farmers and ranchers go out of business because of this disaster.
“One particular farmer, he's got about a mile of fence down that was newly constructed,” said Gooden. “It wasn't two or three months old. He's a first-generation farmer, and it’s such a blow, you know. So, how do you how do you persuade the person to continue going on; pick back up and rebuild.”