As insurers calculate the cost of the once-in-a-century Hurricane Milton, which has the potential to cause damages ranging from US $50 billion to US $175 billion in Flordia, nearby Georgia estimates that Hurricane Helene – which struck last month, has impacted more than US $1.28 billion in timber stock.
That is according to the Georgia Forestry Commission, which yesterday revealed that the Hurricane traversed more than 8.9 million acres of forestland—almost 40% of the state’s 24 million acres of timberlands.
Less than a fortnight after Hurricane Milton struck Tamper Bay, Hurricane Helene caused widespread destruction and fatalities in the Big Bend region of Florida – the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Maria in 2017, and, until Milton, the deadliest to hit mainland US since Katrina in 2005.
Along with South Carolina and Alabama, Georgia is home to the United States’ largest timber stock – and is considered one of the world’s top growing areas for pulp, paper, and, increasingly, engineered wood products.
According to a 2019 report, the state has 207 primary wood processing mills and 1,100 secondary processing mills – processing 47,268,311 logs and transporting 1.9 million truckloads for manufacturing lumber, veneer, sheathing, poles, posts, pulp and biomass.
The damage caused by Helene comes after Hurricane Idalia last year impacted more than 116,526 acres of Georgian forestland, with the Georgia Forestry Commission revealing more than 11,069 acres of timberland was damaged, causing US $9.26 million in timber losses.
- To learn more about the potential damage to Flordia’s forest areas caused by Milton, click here for Wood Central’s live coverage. To find out how forest managers in the US’s southeastern regions are now using NASA satellites to better prepare for natural disasters, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
