Stacks of logs sit outside the home of Lucas Charbeneau in McCormick County on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. Charbeneau estimates 30 to 40 trees came down on his property of less than three acres during Helene. (Abraham Kenmore/SC Daily Gazette).
COLUMBIA— As he opened a hearing, an Aiken County legislator shared Wednesday that more than half of his 130-acre farm was wrecked by Hurricane Helene.
“I’ve never seen hard woods lay down like that,” said Rep. Bill Hixon, R-North Augusta, chairman of the House agriculture committee. “I’ll never see those hard woods again in my life.”
Hurricane Helene, the state’s deadliest natural disaster, caused roughly $200 million in estimated damage to the state’s forest industry, the South Carolina Forestry Commission said in a report presented to the House Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee.
The report estimated $83 million in timber damage and $60 million in damage to forests in and near cities. But that damage could be much higher, said Russell Hubright, the commission’s forest management chief. The report also estimated a $51 million hit to businesses that rely on the state’s forests, including logging wood for construction and paper mills, which contributes $23 billion to the state economy, according to the commission.
“It was definitely a historic impact,” Hubright told the SC Daily Gazette.
There are 12.8 million acres of forestland in South Carolina, with more than 11 million of those are privately owned, according to the State Forestry Commission.
“Most of us know people that own trees and own farms,” Hixon said.
The report estimated that nearly 234,000 acres of land incurred timber damage of some kind with more than 70,000 suffering moderate, severe or catastrophic timber damage.
No county in South Carolina felt the timber impact more than Edgefield. More than 56,000 acres in the rural county along the Georgia border saw timber damage, with more than 20,000 of those experiencing heavy damage, meaning the trees may need to be harvested and replanted. The estimated cost of the damage in the county topped $24 million.
“I drove through the Edgefield area. It was unbelievable,” Hubright said.
Rep. Bill Hixon, R-North Augusta, looks at Rep. Robert Reese, D-Hopkins, during a House committee meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Shaun Chornobroff/SC Daily Gazette)
Edgefield saw the most timber damage and sustained $10 million more in damage than any other county in the state, according to the report.
Those facts weren’t shocking to Hixon.
“Not at all, I lived it,” he said.
Hixon splits his farm with his brother. Nearly four months after Helene ravaged his farm, over 50% of their trees are on the ground, he told the Gazette after the meeting.
“We have some tremendous trees on the ground,” he said.
Hixon is also the owner of his own insurance agency, a business he’s been in for more than 45 years, according to the company website.
Hixon’s insurance business has never previously had more than 50 claims at any one time, Hixon said. After Helene, he had 300.
“We have never seen a storm like this,” he said.
A crucial part of the commission’s recovery efforts is a team of 24 foresters who are assigned to up to three counties per person, Hubright said. Their responsibility is to go to landowners, aid them and assess damage.
In cases of severe damage, the commission has partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has programs that help landowners recover. As of Dec. 11, about 100 forest landowners had signed up for the Emergency Forest Restoration Program, Hubright said.
“They’ll pay for some of the cost of getting the area ready to be replanted and then plant the trees back,” he said.
Local foresters will also be eligible for Timber Block Grants from the federal government. Florida had a similar program in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, which hit the state in 2018. Hubright told the committee he is not sure how much landowners will get from these grants.
The commission also requested supplemental funding from the U.S. Forest Service. Normally they receive between $5 million and $6 million, Hubright said.
This year, the commission applied for nearly $13 million. Of that figure, about $9 million will go toward buying and leasing firefighting bulldozers and engines. Around $1.5 million of the supplemental funds will go toward tree planting in urban forestry areas.
“There’s good support for helping the forest landowners of South Carolina,” Hubright said. “We greatly appreciate that.”