Taking repairs one day at a time

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. — As the water receded in the wake of Hurricane Helene and grass could be seen again, Dan Ross and the others at Triple R Dairy were greeted by a heap of debris around their farm and in the fields.

“We have all kinds of trash,” Ross said. “We have been cleaning up some fields we already have chopped. Then some fields we have to still get to that we have not chopped. Some of the workers had to go out and pick it up out of the corn.”

Ross said it was a struggle to find all of the trash through the corn, but it needed to be done to prevent any harmful material from ending up in the cattle feed. The other feed the cattle at Triple R Dairy get is trucked in about once a week. Before the hurricane, it took the feed truck just under three hours to reach the farm.

“It started out as 7-8 hours (after the hurricane),” Ross said. “Now they got a lot of the roads open so it is probably three hours and 45 minutes I believe. When it first hit, a lot of roads closed. But the state was able to get some back open, which helped get feed here.”

A state bridge that washed away is the main reason for the detour for people aiming to get to and from the farm. On the opposite side of the bridge, Ross and his partners had a rented corn field, which he said he was glad was harvested before the hurricane.

“That is a state bridge so it will be gone for a while,” Ross said. “There is a lot of road damage in the counties close by.”

Throughout the last couple of weeks, everyone has been working on their farms and homes. It may not be a fast process but the community is still there helping each other.

“It is going to be a long-drawn-out proposition,” Ross said. “We only got one small lot fence back for the 3-4 month or 5-month-old calves. So, we were able to go and get that back up and built so we could put them back up there in the barn.”

Ross, his family and hired hands continue to slowly work on getting their land suitable to bring their cattle back to the farm. However, where they took their cattle, 50 miles away, is also flooded.

“(We are hoping) this weekend, we will wade in and check (the fence) since they got flooded too,” Ross said. “We have our cattle over there and we grow some corn over there too, but that was all cut (before the hurricane).”

Even with all of the standing water, Ross and his crew managed to get all of their silage made by Oct. 18.

“We had quite a bit of corn damage with the wind, rain and debris,” Ross said. “We have a lot to clean up. In some fields, it is washed out deep.”

Throughout all of the hardships the hurricane brought, Ross said the community was supportive of its farmers, helping them to get back up and running.

“The dairy got power back within a day,” Ross said. “The rest of the community was staggered. Some people it might have been two weeks and there are some people away from here that haven’t gotten power back yet.”

Ross said everyone is in the process of getting their homes repaired before focusing on the rest of the debris that is lying alongside the road in the areas that flooded.

Getting everything back to normal will take time just like it took time for Triple R Dairy to get their cattle back after being washed away.

“Some of them were scared to death and wild,” Ross said.

Ross said he is grateful for the people he has surrounding him and Triple R Dairy through this tough time.

“I just want to thank God for the people that helped us get the cattle back,” Ross said. “We have recieved hay from farmers across the country, that has truly made an impact on us. We greatly appreciate it.”