NEWPORT, Tenn. — Hundreds of migrant workers have left East Tennessee because of Hurricane Helene. The flash floods cut the harvest short as they wrecked local farms, destroying the places where many migrant workers were employed.
Jimmy Howard is a farm manager at the Smoky Mountain Family Farm. He said the farm lost millions of dollars worth of crops and equipment.
Migrant workers at the Newport farm have switched from picking tomatoes to cleaning up the damage left behind from the floods. The Pigeon River flows right next to the farm and migrants said the river flooded into the fields.
Martina Basoco is a migrant worker from Mexico. She arrived in East Tennessee in July to work in the fields.
"Both men and women have been assigned to clean up the fields. Thank God that we are still working," Basoco, said.
She plans on working in the fields until the end of October.
"Those who've been hired, we have to complete the contract. Doesn't matter the type of work we do," she said.
The fields of Smoky Mountain Family Farm have turned from rows of tomatoes to mounds of footprints and mudslides.
"The hurricane has destroyed the field. So there are no more jobs," said Leovardo Sanchez, another farm worker.
He also helps to organize the group of migrants. Sanchez said a cut of harvest season will affect the delivery of tomatoes.
"The tomato we plant here is important — because that same tomato goes to Florida and other states," he said.
The Smoky Mountain Family Farm in Newport hires about 800 migrant workers every agricultural season. Migrant workers care for almost 1,000 acres worth of land.
"We have an H-2A worker who comes from Mexico who goes through the government program, " said Jimmy Howard, the farm manager.
H-2A is a Temporary Agricultural Workers visa. It allows migrants from outside the U.S. to enter the country and work for a few months planting and harvesting crops.
Howard said at least 500 migrants have left his farm since Friday's historic floods.
"Some of them will go to their sister farm in Florida and Georgia —or back to Mexico," Howard said.