Farms, Vineyards Assess and React to Damage From Irene

Farmers took to the fields on Monday to find out that while Tropical Storm Irene brought along with her some damaging side effects, those damages were not nearly what they could have been - nor what they had predicted.

"We effectively dodged a major bullet with some exceptions," said Joe Gergela, executive director of the Long Island Farm Bureau. Gergela then listed several crops he had heard got hit hard by Irene: corn, leafy vegetables, tree fruit and nursery plants, among others.

Gergela said farmers would be cataloguing damages over the next few days as the entire county details the economic impact of Irene while federal officials are in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Should Suffolk County be declared a disaster area, locals could see reimbursement from the federal government for lost funds due to the tropical storm.

Corn, Gergela said, "got hurt pretty bad," which Cutchogue farmer and Councilman Al Krupski saw on his farm as well. Shortly after corn falls it can be harvested, but before too long worms and birds get to it. Krupski said it would be a challenge but he would be able to save some for harvest.

Geckee Wickham at Wickham's Fruit Farm said refrigerating her fruit after it's been picked is her biggest problem.

"I'm very, very disappointed we don't have any power," she said, adding that she's run out of space to store fruit in the two generator-powered refrigerators she has. If fruit takes on too much water it splits, so it must be picked when ripe and stored in a cool place, which Wickham said will become increasingly hard.

Long Island Power Authority officials announced on Monday that 95 percent of customers who had lost power due to Irene would be up and running by Friday at the latest.

Organic farmer Eve Kaplan of Garden of Eve said she had yet to survey the full extent of the damage, though she noticed that tomatoes and greens got hit hard.

Winemakers also agreed that they dodged a bullet, though some said they have found themselves paying for chemicals to offset from salt spray brought on from the storm.

Ron Goehler of Jamesport Vineyards, president of the Long Island Wine Council, said that before Irene arrived he applied a pine-based product -something he hadn't tried on a large scale before - on about 15 of his 65 acres to absorb the salt water. He said the "leaves took really nice to it," particularly pinot grapes, which he said are sensitive to moisture. 

But the winds, as in  many areas in Eastern Suffolk, caused potential damage to the grapes.

"There was some bruising on the grapes, but with nets flapping 30 to 40 miles per hour that's going to happen,"  Goehler said.

Martha Clara winemaker Juan Micieli-Martinez said he applied a protectant before the storm, but expressed more concern about the birds "voraciously eating" his grapes before the storm than the wind and rain during it.

Pindar Damianos, of Pindar and Duck Walk Vineyards, said he sprayed a fungicide to counter any potential mold from excess rain before the storm and did not plan on spraying to counter salt spray. Though he said he's already looking ahead to any other storms coming up the coast.

"The problem getting one this early in the hurricane is, are we going to see one in a couple weeks as it continues on?"