Hurricane Irene’s heavy rains have caused the closure of major highways in eastern New York—I-90, I-87 and Route 20. That’s hampering not only milk pick-ups off farms but moving milk to processing facilities in the major metropolitan areas of New York City and New England.
“Utica east is where the problems are,” says Karen Cartier, spokesperson for Dairy Marketing Services (DMS). DMS handles hauling logistics for some 8,000 Northeast dairy farms and moves more than 900 loads of milk each day.
“We won’t know until the end of the week if any milk has been dumped,” she says. “Our field staff is still going farm to farm to find out what the needs are. Most farmers are relying on their local communities for support. Our 800 number help line has not had a significant flood of calls.”
But some milk haulers have had to use chain saws to cut their way through rural roads and up farmers’ driveways to pick up milk. Power outages are also an issue, but many farms do have standby generators to milk cows, cool milk and pump it on to trucks.
In some ways, the devastation caused by Hurricane Irene is similar to those caused by massive winter ice storms that knock down trees and cut off power. “We’re used to this in winter, and were using some of the same hardware and emergency planning,” says Cartier. “The difference is we’re using it in August rather than in January.”
Reuters is reporting 260 Vermont roads remain closed, and state government is planning to airlift supplies to towns cut off by the flooding.
