Sky darkens, rain pours, wind blows and a hurricane roars, leaving in its wake mangled buildings, roofless grain bins, and uprooted foundation pillars. Barns, shops, equipment—gone. In 2020, Brandon Vail’s farm life was rolled by devastation on a grand scale. Pile on a truck accident from which he crawled from a crushed tin can to survive by a wafer-thin margin—and the pill of 2020 is all the more bitter.

Yet, mettle takes the day. Knocked to the mat in 2020, Vail found his feet, emblematic of the resilience of Louisiana farmers forced to reckon with another wrecking ball. Farming just 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico in the teeth of hurricane country, battling saltwater creep and mosquito plagues, Vail is pushing back with grit against the elements. He will rebuild. “I belong here on this dirt,” he says. “I belong.”

Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana exactly 16 years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast. Ida’s 150 mph winds make it equal in strength and intensity as 2020’s Hurricane Laura and the 1856 storm that hit the community of Last Island. All three are tied as the strongest hurricanes to ever make landfall in Louisiana. Ida’s winds toppled electrical transmission lines that provide power to grain export facilities and small family farms alike. Ida’s storm surge sent cattle to higher ground along levees with hardly any forage and even less fresh water. Homes are damaged or destroyed. Our farmers and ranchers will feel the economic and psychological effects of this storm through this harvest season and beyond.

The Louisiana Farm Bureau Disaster Response Committee has created a Facebook Group to connect you with other farmers and ranchers across the state to either offer help where you can or request help if you're in need during a natural disaster like Hurricane Ida.