Our family wanted to take a moment to share how Hurricane Helene has impacted our farm and community in Ridge Spring, SC. Yon Family Farms was established in 1996 when we moved to Ridge Spring – our primary products are Angus cattle, small grains, corn, sorghum, hay, pecans, and timber. We also operate a small retail store where we sell our local beef and pecans, along with other locally grown products from neighboring farms. Yon Family Farms is truly a family farm, run by “boots on the ground” family members and a dedicated team of around 12 other full time employees. We raised our family here and today the third generation is seven strong thus far.
Hurricane Helene came in around 4 am on Friday morning, September 27th and raged for a full three or four hours. Three of our family members who serve as volunteer firemen were out responding to calls from 2 am on Friday morning, all day, until darkness fell again, assisting with clearing trees from roadways and helping people with damaged homes. Those of us left at home alone (moms and wives – with young babies and small children) hunkered down in darkness with howling wind and beating rain being the only sounds we heard, unable to communicate, except for the occasional text urging us to move to the center of our homes, that it was not safe elsewhere. We storm-shocked gals and the children all migrated to one house after the storm passed, where we eventually cooked supper on the grill and ate, before returning to our dark homes alone. When the guys, tired and weary, did safely return to our homes, they had to cut numerous trees from the roadways to do so. We were happy to see them home – two firemen in our county lost their lives responding to a call earlier in the day as a tree struck their vehicle. It could have just as easily been our guys. They were responding to the same call before being turned around, as it had become too dangerous to travel. Two members of our small town were also lost due to the storm’s fury. All power was quickly lost during the storm and snapped poles, downed lines and transformers remaining in the streets are commonplace. We are now on day 7 with no power as of October 3rd. The loss of power has been at best, an inconvenience to residents and an unexpected nightmare for farmers with livestock, poultry and perishable products needing refrigeration and freezers. We all knew the storm was forecasted, but the wind speeds and severity were grossly underestimated, which in turn, meant we were grossly unprepared. [READ MORE]