South Carolina Partnership Lends a Hand to Katrina-Battered Mississippi 

(from left) Newberry SWCD Chairman Wayne Satterwhite, Alton Piester, and William Satterwhite

The Newberry, South Carolina Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and NRCS are pitching in to provide resources to Hurricane Katrina-battered Hancock County, Mississippi, to help recovery in that rural area.

The partnership’s first priority was to feed livestock evacuated from Hancock County and relocated about a 150 miles north. Newberry farmers Wayne and William Satterwhite donated the first load of hay -- inspected and loaded by Clemson University Cooperative Research, Education and Extension Service personnel and delivered on a truck loaned by Alton Piester. The Newberry SWCD helped raise donations from the Cattlemen’s Association and other organizations and individuals to pay for the truck’s fuel. “We intend to adopt this county and help them out in anyway that we can when it comes to restoring hard-hit rural areas which are sometimes overshadowed by urban recovery efforts,” said Newberry County-based NRCS District Conservationist Craig O’Dell. “We hope that we’ll be able deliver hay on a regular basis,”

Learn more about  NRCS in South Carolina.

The partnership assistance was also the occasion for a reunion of sorts when Craig O’Dell discovered that his old Beaufort County, South Carolina colleague, Charles Truax was now the district conservationist located in Hancock County, Mississippi. “I had no idea that the person who picked up the phone in Hancock County would be one of my previous co-workers. It was a pleasant surprise to hear Charles’ voice on the other end of the line,” explained O’Dell.

The Newberry Conservation Partnership hopes to set an example for others to adopt areas crippled by Hurricane Katrina. “It’s important to reach out to rural areas that were affected by this natural disaster, and help them get back on their feet.”
Your contact is the Newberry Conservation Partnership, at 803-276-1978, ext. 3.