Disaster can strike a farm with little warning, damaging roads, fencing, buildings, equipment, and access to livestock in minutes. A two-day workshop in Greeneville will help farmers identify weak points, plan for emergencies, and better understand what to do when recovery begins.
Farmers cannot control when a flood, tornado, or windstorm hits, but they can make decisions beforehand that may determine how well their farms withstand the damage and how quickly they recover.
The Appalachian Resource Conservation & Development Council, or ARC&D, will hold a two-day Farm Disaster Preparedness Workshop Sept. 17-18 at Rural Resources in Greeneville. The program will help farmers identify property risks, prepare for emergencies, and understand what assistance they can seek after a disaster.
The workshop runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days. Registration costs $30, and ARC&D will provide lunch. The organization also offers fee waivers for farmers who cannot afford registration.
Disaster Planning Starts Before the Storm
ARC&D designed the workshop around a simple idea: Farmers should not have to figure out the first steps of disaster response while an emergency unfolds.
According to ARC&D, participants will examine weak points on their farms and consider what could happen if severe weather damages buildings, fencing, roads, utilities, or other parts of an operation.
The two-day program will cover farm risk assessment, pressure-point mapping, preparedness, disaster simulations, response, and disaster assistance. ARC&D says participants will also hear from people involved in local and regional recovery efforts.
ARC&D will ask farmers to look beyond general disaster planning and consider what could go wrong on their own properties and what they can do before an emergency occurs.
UT Specialist Will Lead the Workshop
Shelli Rampold, an assistant professor with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, will lead the workshop with ARC&D.
UTIA says Rampold focuses her work on issues and crisis management, disaster planning, crisis communication, continuity planning, and agricultural recovery. She also serves as Tennessee’s point of contact for the Extension Disaster Education Network.
Rampold grew up in southern Louisiana, where hurricanes and other natural hazards were a familiar part of life. According to UTIA, those experiences helped shape her professional work in disaster resilience and agricultural response.
That background gives the Greeneville workshop a practical focus. Farmers will work through what they may need to do before, during, and after an emergency rather than simply hearing a list of possible hazards.
Farms Face Risks That Households Do Not
Household emergency planning often focuses on food, water, medicine, evacuation routes, and communication.
A working farm adds another set of problems.
Livestock still need water and feed when blocked roads cut off access. Floodwater can take out fencing. A fallen tree can cut electricity to a barn. A severe storm can damage equipment, stored feed, greenhouses, crops, and farm roads within minutes.
Farmers also have to think about keeping their businesses operating after the immediate danger passes.
ARC&D’s farm risk-management materials encourage producers to consider insurance, land-management practices, and disaster planning to protect both farm property and farm income. The organization identifies flooding, tornadoes, and windstorms as severe-weather threats facing Northeast Tennessee farms.
The Greeneville workshop aims to help farmers turn those concerns into an actual plan.
Helene Made the Risk Real Across Northeast Tennessee
For many farmers in the Appalachian Highlands, disaster planning is no longer an abstract exercise.
Hurricane Helene struck Northeast Tennessee in September 2024 and damaged agricultural land, roads, bridges, farm structures and timber across the region.
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture later estimated agricultural and forestry losses in the state at $547 million to $1.8 billion. The department said the estimate included damaged structures and fencing, debris removal and long-term land reclamation. The storm affected more than 150,000 acres across several East Tennessee counties.
Recovery work has continued well beyond the storm itself.
Earlier this year, Tennessee opened a roughly $34 million Hurricane Helene Agricultural and Timber Relief Fund for eligible farmers and forest landowners in Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties.
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture said many applicants sought help for damage to roads, bridges, agricultural structures and timber.
The recovery process also exposed another problem farmers can face after a disaster: paperwork.
When the state later extended the relief application period, the Department of Agriculture said missing documentation and identity-verification problems slowed some applications.
Farmers can make disaster recovery easier by protecting important records, knowing where they keep documents and understanding which agencies to contact. Those steps matter just as much as checking drainage or securing equipment before a storm.
Farmers Will Work Through Disaster Scenarios
One of the workshop’s more unusual features is the use of disaster simulations.
ARC&D says participants will work through scenarios that force them to consider decisions they might have to make during an emergency.
A farmer might have to decide what takes priority if a storm cuts off access to part of the property. Livestock may need a new location. A damaged road or bridge may block access. Farmers may need records to document a loss. Other parts of the operation may need to keep running while repairs continue.
The workshop also includes pressure-point mapping, which helps farmers identify places where one failure could cause larger problems elsewhere on the farm.
Those pressure points will differ from one operation to another.
A livestock farm may depend heavily on fencing, water, and animal access. A produce operation may rely on irrigation, refrigeration, or high tunnels. Another farm may depend on a single road, bridge, or electrical connection.
The exercise does not attempt to predict exactly what kind of disaster will happen. Instead, it helps farmers identify where their operations face the greatest risks before something goes wrong.
Farmers Will Learn About Disaster Assistance
The workshop also addresses what farmers may face after the immediate emergency ends.
Farm disaster assistance may involve federal, state and local programs, insurance companies, Extension offices and conservation agencies. Each organization may require different records, forms and deadlines.
ARC&D says the workshop will include guidance on navigating disaster assistance, along with information from people involved in local and regional recovery work.
Farmers who have never dealt with a major agricultural loss may find that guidance especially useful.
Applications for assistance can come in while farmers repair fences, clear debris, move livestock, or try to save crops. Farmers who know what records they may need and which agencies to contact can handle that process more efficiently.
Workshop Is Part of ARC&D Field School
ARC&D includes the disaster-preparedness workshop in its 2026 Summer Field School, a series for new, beginning, and experienced farmers.
ARC&D says this year’s Field School has covered soil health, rotational grazing, niche markets, basic farm skills, season extension, and on-farm food safety.
The series connects farmers with agricultural professionals and working farms while giving them opportunities to meet other producers from across the region.
The disaster-preparedness workshop closes out the summer program.
Registration Is Open
ARC&D will hold the Farm Disaster Preparedness Workshop Sept. 17-18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Rural Resources Farm and Food Education Center, 2870 Holly Creek Road in Greeneville, Tenn.
Registration costs $30 for both days, and ARC&D will provide lunch.
The organization also offers no-cost registration for farmers who cannot afford the fee.
Farmers can register through ARC&D’s Summer Field School program.
AHF Education at a Glance
The Farm Disaster Preparedness Workshop gives farmers two days to assess risks on their properties and plan what they might do before, during, and after a natural disaster.
The program covers farm risk assessment, pressure points, disaster simulations, response, and disaster assistance. UT disaster specialist Shelli Rampold will lead the training with ARC&D.
ARC&D will hold the workshop 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sept. 17-18 at Rural Resources in Greeneville, Tenn. Registration costs $30 for both days, and ARC&D will provide lunch. The organization also offers fee waivers.
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