This article was originally written for the Turf News July/August 2025 issue. The version below is a shortened excerpt.**
When hurricanes or floodwaters strike, sod farms sit on the front lines. Unlike many agricultural operations, sod farms often span hundreds of open acres—leaving them vulnerable to wind, rain and rising water. For growers, storm season doesn’t just threaten crops, it can upend months or even years of progress.
Preparing for the Worst
Sod producers in hurricane-prone regions like the Gulf Coast and Southeastern U.S. have learned to treat disaster preparedness as part of everyday operations. That includes developing detailed hurricane response plans, elevating irrigation pumps and electrical panels and investing in drainage infrastructure to mitigate flood damage. They have to monitor storms constantly and track their progress so they can not only secure and move equipment but also brace their farms and loved ones for the impact.
Some farms stage generators and preschedule with pivot companies in advance to keep irrigation systems running after a storm. This is critical to helping sod rebound quickly after flooding or saltwater intrusion.
Flooding: The Invisible Threat
While hurricanes draw headlines, it’s often the lingering floodwaters that do the most damage. Turfgrass submerged for more than a few days can suffer root rot or die-off, especially in warm weather. Zoysia and St. Augustine varieties tend to recover better than others, but prolonged saturation can still spell disaster or disease in any grass variety.
Growers often have to make tough calls, balancing the need to harvest quickly before a storm with the risk of damaging wet fields afterward. And post-storm, the cleanup is just the beginning. Even if the fields look green after a flood, it can take weeks to know what survived.
Stormy Weather for Sod Growers
Over the years, Sod Solutions and our large network within the industry have come together to assist numerous farms across many regions that have been impacted by hurricane, storm or flooding damage. As previously reported by Sod Solutions, Riebeling Farms has withstood numerous severe storms in Foley, AL.
Owners, Vanessa and Jimmy Riebeling, recalled when Hurricane Frederic hit one week after they got married in September 1979 and left them without electricity for a full week. Two other bad hurricanes that hit their farm were Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Sally in 2020.
Pictured above are Riebeling Farms center pivot irrigation rigs flipped over during Hurricane Sally.
Hurricane Sally sat on top of their farm for a long time and flipped 9 of their 16 center pivot irrigation rigs. They were fortunate to have irrigation generators to rewire electricity to their house and that they still had a roof on their house. Shortly after, their customer from Florida drove up and assisted them in cutting and removing tree debris on the farm. Sod Solutions worked with other industry members for donations and brought them to Riebeling Farms after Sally hit.
Erin Wilder (right) and her son David, bringing Jimmy and Vanessa Riebeling’s donations from Sod Solutions after Hurricane Sally hit Riebeling Farms in 2020.
Riebeling Farms is just one of hundreds of farms that have had to pick up the mess after a storm and figure out next steps. Last year, Hurricane Helene was a devastating storm that wiped out full communities, roads and was responsible for hundreds of fatalities across the Southeast. Entire regions had to be rebuilt and many are still navigating new norms in these areas that were hit. It was remarkable to see some in our network of growers dedicate their time, supplies, energy and faith to assist those impacted by this hurricane.
Recovering from Hurricane Ian
Jonathan Brown, owner of Creekside Sod and the ag consulting firm ProGro Solutions, shared his account of Hurricane Ian’s landfall on Florida’s southwest coast around 7 p.m. on September 28, 2022, near Cayo Costa. Brown explained that the hurricane brought with it coastal flooding and erosion, wind destruction of structures and trees. Due to the time of year and two weeks of above-average rainfall in front of Ian, many of the lakes, rivers and creeks were already at or near flood stage. In some areas, Ian had dropped as much as 21 inches of rain. The result was freshwater flooding ranging from Punta Gorda all the way up to Lakeland Florida and beyond.
As a result, sod farms were impacted by lost power, which brings offices and shops to a standstill. Some even suffered power loss for a few weeks. “Many structures such as offices, shops and pump houses were left without a roof, or worse completely leveled. In several cases, production and harvesting equipment parked in shops or barns were damaged by collapsed roofs and walls. Center pivots and linear irrigation systems that were not anchored properly were strewn about the fields like spaghetti,” Brown shared.
He said that repairs were delayed as some waited weeks on insurance adjusters to make site visits and others were trying to just move the rubble from above and around equipment without causing further damage.
“With all the flooding, even after the water receded, many of the roads, bridges and culverts were washed out and impassable. It was a logistical nightmare. Trucks trying to deliver shells for road reconstruction at the farm couldn’t get to the farm. Even if you could harvest sod, some farms were locked in due to impassable highways leading to and from the farms and customers,” he added.
After Ian hit, many local markets had been damaged by the storm and their phones weren’t ringing with new orders. “Flooding, high winds and crippled logistics brought a big portion of the market to a screeching halt. New construction slowed, scheduled renovations were delayed, supply of building materials was in short supply and labor was lacking. Delays in insurance payments, road and bridge reconstruction was a slow process. The aftermath created a huge bottleneck in the supply chain,” Brown recalled.
But reconstruction across Florida began and as supply and logistics returned online, so did the demand for turfgrass and orders resumed. Then, reconstruction and repairs to residential homes, multifamily condos and commercial sites started going back up. Brown said to complicate things, 2024 brought five named storms to the state of Florida, meaning many properties that had just completed reconstruction after Ian were hit again. The west coast of Florida was hit pretty bad last year, but this spring, most are back online with landscaping their final step for completion. He said the result has been one of the strongest turf markets he’s seen in many years.
As a result of the storms he’s witnessed and their impact on farms, Brown had some tips for making a plan. It’s important to know who, what, when and how you will plan and respond. Below is a list of tips he suggests for farms to prepare for a storm.
Brown explained this list is a good starting point and more should be added to fit your operation.
Lessons and Strategies
Disasters have tested sod farms and shaped how they plan ahead. Long-term strategies like diversifying grass varieties, improving field slope and investing in water management now help growers stay ahead of the storm.
This article was written by Erin Wilder and Cecilia Johnson
