When disaster strikes

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, May 15th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: what it takes to hold on to a family farm.

Last fall, Hurricane Helene carved a destructive path across South Georgia, leaving behind more than five and a half billion dollars in damages to the state’s agricultural industries: cotton, pecans, timber, cattle, poultry and more.

REICHARD: For one father and son, it wasn’t just a storm. It was a turning point. After years of mounting challenges, they now ask, how much more can their farm take? WORLD’s Lindsay Mast has their story.

LINDSAY MAST: Jeffrey Pridgen caught the farming bug early.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: I was driving a tractor in the back of the patch when I was six years old. Just gets in your blood.

He’s in his early 60s now, but he’s still on a tractor today–planting corn to feed his cattle.

His family has lived in this rural area of Coffee County, Georgia for over 200 years. It’s the kind of place where roads, a church, and a cemetery nearby all bear the family name. And all around, acres of farmland.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: So we was taking chicken money and growing hogs, but that didn't work out, so we got out the hog business. So we've been in the chicken business 34, 35 years.

Pridgen grew his poultry in 12 long, skinny houses: Each almost one and a half times the length of a football field but just one-fourth as wide. Each designed to house over 18,000 full grown birds.

Jeffrey’s son Walt caught the farming bug early, as well.

WALT PRIDGEN: There's nothing else I've ever wanted to do, which is nuts. I mean I've got a degree, I went to college, but I just, I like being out here, and I like doing this, and somebody's got to do it.

When he started farming he borrowed money and built four chicken houses of his own.

A little bigger than his dad’s. Newer. With touch screens to control the temperature, the lights, the near-constant feed time.

Then came Hurricane Helene. The family watched the forecast.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: And if you watch that radar, it wasn't turning, the storm wasn't turning. I told my wife, You know that thing's coming right over the top of us. No, it ain't they know what they're talking about.

As the storm worsened, Walt and his wife took their dog to his parent’s house. His wife was pregnant. They all waited in the dark. Walt can still hear the storm’s fury.

WALT PRIDGEN: You hear the thing about, oh, if there's a tornado, it sounds like a train's coming through the yard. There was a train coming through the yard that morning at 2:30. I don't know if it was one train. Don’t know if it was one train or 10 trains, but it was getting it when it was going.

They debated. When could they safely go check on the chickens? Just before sunrise, Walt stepped outside.

WALT PRIDGEN: We got hammered. it looked like a bomb went off around here.

It took them hours to cut a path to the chicken houses. They found four of Jeffrey’s houses, collapsed. Another seven, damaged. Only one remains operational.

LINDSAY: What did you think when you saw it?

JEFFREY: Shock. I mean, just never seen anything like it.

The collapsed houses look like they got tired and laid down to the side to take a nap. Thousands of chickens died.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: Farming is a gamble. No matter what you do farming, it's all a gamble.

But he didn’t anticipate a losing hand so close to retirement age.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: I lost my income and my retirement in one day.

Meanwhile, Walt’s houses sit just a half-mile from his dad’s. They found them virtually untouched. Spared by the storm.

Today, Walt says his houses hold more birds than before to make up for other houses damaged by Helene. This week workers are collecting the chickens in each one for processing.

Those chickens will end up as food on someone’s table. And Walt says: that’s work that matters.

WALT PRIDGEN: Every once in a while in life, you'll need a doctor or a lawyer. Every once in a while, you're gonna need a pharmacist. I believe that you need a preacher. But you're gonna need a farmer, at least once a day.

But it’s hard. Walt says since the storm he’s quit planning things. Before Helene, he’d hoped to take over the entire business in a few years: Pay a lease to his dad so his dad could retire on the payments. But now the damaged houses sit empty. The rebuilding process is uncertain.

WALT PRIDGEN The good Lord is the one that has the end result. So if we get there by whatever means, and he allows it to happen, then, that's the only answer.

Walt says he does plan to keep farming until his infant son can decide if he wants to get into the business.

WALT PRIDGEN: I'm gonna do everything I can do to better agriculture going forward, not only for myself, but for my little boy.

Back on the tractor, Jeffrey shares that vision. He wants his grandson to go to college and then be smart about their land his family has spent their lives farming.

JEFFREY PRIDGEN: If you do it right, you can make a living. You just gotta get plenty ahead and save your money. When you do make money.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Lindsay Mast in unincorporated Pridgen, Georgia.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.