Santander Loses Four Million Dollars in Sugarcane Crop Due to Hurricane Lisa

Santander lost five percent of its sugarcane crop due to the strong winds and rain brought on by Hurricane Lisa.  The initial assessment seemed worst, with acres upon acres of sugar cane lying flat on the ground. But, once the rain cleared and the weather improved those flattened sugarcane stalks rose up once again, a testament to the resilience of the plant. So, in the end Santander estimates that it will be able to harvest ninety-five percent of its crops, following Hurricane Lisa. That is the good news, but that five percent damage to Santander’s crop is valued at a significant four million dollars. The company’s infrastructure also sustained significant damages. We spoke with Beverly Burke, the Public Relations Manager at Santander, via Zoom.

Beverly Burke

Beverly Burke, Public Relations Manager, Santander

“The initial report, or when you look at the sugarcane and it is all just lying down, it would appear initially that it is a total loss. But, the great thing about sugarcane is that it is extremely resilient. So, once it gets dry, it will densely pick right back up. We experience some damages but we are thinking that it is three to five percent of our total crop, which is not bad, but any loss as you know is not good. But, for us we are anticipating at least a ninety five percent recovery and that is dependent on the weather conditions from now through to December, January when we actually start harvesting the sugarcane. We are anticipating that with good dry weather, we should be ok to salvage a good ninety five percent. What we have already calculated is the damages to the structure, because it wasn’t just fields, we do have offices. We have our factory. We have our sugar storage facility. So it is complete for us. A couple roofs that we lost in the process. We had where the mill building is concerned, some damages to the roof and sidings. So, that we have already worked out and that is in the tune of about five hundred thousand dollars.”