Dear UF/IFAS Family,

Thank you to all who prepared for and responded to Hurricane Debby last week.

It wasn’t without some damage, but we have emerged from Hurricane Debby with all employees safe and with another tremendous response from the team that demonstrates the UF/IFAS mutual aid culture.

These episodes reaffirm our resiliency as an organization. We can’t dictate this through policy. It has to be an ethic, and our historical response to each storm reaffirms how strong it is.

In this case, the biggest tests of that resiliency came in Cedar Key and Live Oak. The Nature Coast Biological Station team had tons of mud to move. North Florida Research and Education Center—Suwannee Valley had flooded roads impeding access to the station and acres of research on corn, cotton, peanuts and more under water. The NFREC farm crew and staff worked quickly to remove water, and most of the corn plots were saved. We’re still assessing damage to the cotton and peanut trials.

The NCBS and NFREC-SV staffs got support from IFAS staff from IFAS Facilities, Planning and Operations; the Heavy Equipment program and staff at the Plant Science Research and Education Unit in Citra; the EDEN disaster team and Extension personnel across the state.

Extension’s efforts in supporting their local counties are always exemplary, but during storms and disasters they often work in their counties’ emergency operations centers to help their communities respond.

Christa Court and her team had a storm damage assessment survey out to producers in English, Spanish, online and on paper just hours after the storm passed. Their quick and thorough work documenting damage has been a key to the industry securing recovery assistance.

One of Dr. Court’s preliminary findings was that Debby is predicted to have put at least 200,000 acres of agricultural lands under at least two feet of water. Regardless of exact numbers, her work is a stark reminder that there’s a great deal at stake no matter where a storm hits.

As you know, if a storm hits Florida, it hits UF/IFAS because we are almost everywhere.

We are only about halfway through hurricane season, so we may be drawing upon our teamwork culture again, sooner rather than later.

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