COCKE COUNTY, Tenn. — Corbin Neas runs a farm in Cocke County with his parents, wife and two young daughters. When Hurricane Helene hit, he and his father watched as the water rose and covered their crops, leaving them unsellable.
"There's nothing I can do, except till it under. It's just ruined," Neas said.
He said about 225 acres of crops were damaged equaling about $200,000. Neas said that amount doesn't include the cost of clearing the leftover debris and making the dirt capable of being farmed again.
"That's a whole year's worth of living, plus expenses to grow that crop. It's going to be hard to recover," he said.
The farm sits between the Pigeon River and the French Broad River. Neas said the flooding caused water to rise over 10 feet high. The rivers carried over debris and sand. He said there's also leftover water that removed layers of soil, leaving a small pond behind.
"There's so much silt and sand from upstream the river that crossed over the top of the dirt in some places. It's washed the topsoil down to bedrock. That can't be fixed. It'll never be farmed again. Not in my lifetime," Neas said.
He's planning on cleaning up debris later this year. During that time he said he'll be working to harvest unaffected crops. While he won't work on clearing the land yet, he said when he's ready he knows the community will be there to help.
"It truly is amazing what our community has done to come together to help everybody. There are people from Middle Tennessee, West Tennessee, Northern Alabama, all the way to Missouri bringing aid and supplies in," he said.
There are several locations where donations are being dropped off. One place is the Cocke County Fairgrounds. Alicia Payne, the director of the Cocke County A&I Fairs Association, came up with the idea to collect supplies for farmers with her niece.
"We have a small farm of horses and we just wanted to give back to our community. Some of our friends and family were impacted. They lost everything they had and we wanted to help our farmers because if it had been us, they would have been here to help us too," Payne said.
She said the greatest need seems to be hay and other animal feed.
"Farmers' winter store was all washed down the river and this is time and money and hours that they've spent to ensure that their livestock is going be fed for the winter and those resources aren't there anymore," she said.
Payne said during her time collecting donations at the fairgrounds, she's heard several stories from people who have lost so much.
"From watching their homes be flooded, all their personal belongings, their family heirlooms, pictures of their family that they'll never get back to the fear of their livestock. How they'll feed their family, their livelihood. It's heartbreaking to hear those stories, but we still have them and everything else can be rebuilt. And that's why we're here to try to rebuild," Payne said.
She said besides supplies, she's also been working with the Smokey Mountain Farmers Co-Op to bring a doctor to the grounds to treat livestock. Payne said on Oct. 15, farmers can bring livestock showing signs of distress and get them antibiotics or other treatments for free.