When Hurricane Andrew came back for Louisiana (August 26, 1992)

After devastating South Florida two days earlier, Hurricane Andrew crossed the Gulf of Mexico and made its U.S. second landfall near Morgan City, Louisiana, on August 26, 1992. The storm arrived with major-hurricane force winds, intense rain bands, and tornado outbreaks that tested both coastal infrastructure and inland farm country.

For agriculture, the timing and the track mattered. Late August in Louisiana is a convergence point for several commodities: sugarcane is tall and vulnerable to lodging; early rice harvest is underway along the Gulf Coast; corn and soybeans are in late-season stages across the lower Mississippi Valley; and cattle producers are still in peak heat-stress management. Andrew’s winds flattened swaths of cane, complicating subsequent harvest and affecting sugar recovery. In low-lying parishes, storm surge and heavy rainfall pushed brackish water into canals and fields, stressing rice and pasture. Fences, barns, and grain bins took wind damage well beyond the immediate coast, and power outages disrupted irrigation and on-farm storage.

Andrew’s agricultural footprint extended beyond immediate losses. The storm became part of an early-1990s sequence of extreme events that sharpened federal focus on disaster risk management. Along with the 1993 Midwest floods and other costly disasters, Andrew helped spur reforms to the federal crop insurance program in the mid-1990s, expanding participation and creating a more structured baseline of catastrophic coverage. In coastal Louisiana, the storm also accelerated conversations about wind-resistant crop varieties, drainage and surge management, and the siting and tie-down practices for grain and cotton storage.

Harvey’s long rain begins (August 26, 2017)

The day after Hurricane Harvey’s Category 4 landfall near Rockport, Texas, the storm stalled over the coast and began the prolonged rainfall event that would define it. August 26, 2017 marked the first of several days of devastating flooding across portions of the Coastal Bend, the Houston metro, and parts of Southeast Texas—areas with dense concentrations of cropland, livestock, storage, and processing facilities.

The agricultural impacts were distinctive and widely documented. Cotton had been a bright spot that season, and many growers had modules staged or ginned bales stacked when the deluge began. Floodwaters and winds destroyed or contaminated some modules, scattered tarps, and damaged warehouse inventories in the hardest hit counties. Rice growers—many having completed or nearing first-crop harvest—contended with flooded fields and access roads, while some on-farm grain storage and dryers were inundated. Poultry facilities, dairies, and cow-calf operations scrambled to maintain animal welfare amid power outages, impassable roads, and rapidly rising water.

As with Andrew 25 years earlier, Harvey became a touchstone for resilience planning. Producers and local conservation districts leaned on practical lessons—anchoring fuel tanks, elevating electrical systems and control panels, strapping cotton modules, hardening grain bin foundations, and cross-training crews for rapid equipment moves when storms are imminent. USDA emergency designations and cost-share tools, including EQIP and EWP in affected watersheds, were deployed to help repair conservation structures, restore fencing, and mitigate erosion. The storm also reinforced the value of business interruption planning with gins, elevators, and feed suppliers so that regional supply chains can restart quickly after floodwaters recede.

Certification of the 19th Amendment (August 26, 1920) and its long arc on the farm

On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was formally certified, guaranteeing women the right to vote. While the milestone belongs to the broader American story, its agricultural reverberations have been deep and lasting in rural communities.

Political participation reshaped local and state priorities in places where farm families formed the backbone of civic life. In the decades that followed, women increasingly influenced school boards, county commissions, and statehouses on issues foundational to farm country—roads and bridges, rural electrification, land-grant university funding, extension programming, public health, and education. The growth of home demonstration and cooperative extension programs in the early-to-mid 20th century—covering food safety, nutrition, gardening, canning, and household management—was strengthened by women’s voices and leadership.

Farm organizations also evolved. Women took on visible roles in cooperatives, commodity groups, and advocacy organizations, shaping conversations on credit access, conservation, and the safety of farm labor. Over time, legal and programmatic frameworks adapted to recognize women as landowners, managers, and principal operators. As of the most recent Census of Agriculture, women account for more than one-third of all U.S. farm producers, and a majority of farms report at least one female decision-maker—evidence of a century-long shift that traces a lines back to the suffrage movement.

August 26 is now observed as Women’s Equality Day, a reminder that representation matters in the places where policy is made—and on the ground where policy is implemented. In agriculture, that means ensuring equity in access to credit, land, technical assistance, disaster relief, and markets for all producers.

Late-August on the farm: a recurring pulse

Beyond the anniversaries etched on the calendar, August 26 often sits at a pivot in the production year:

• Gulf Coast rice harvest typically kicks into gear during the latter half of August, with second-crop (ratoon) decisions following soon after in Texas and Louisiana.
• Cotton in Texas, the nation’s largest-producing state, pushes toward open-boll conditions in the Coastal Bend and Lower Rio Grande Valley, while defoliation planning ramps up further north as heat units accumulate.
• Corn reaches dent and beyond across the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Delta, bringing moisture-management tradeoffs between finishing grain and preparing for an early harvest window.
• Fresh produce operations in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic manage late-summer harvests while preparing fields for fall plantings of leafy greens, brassicas, and cover crops.
• Livestock managers navigate heat stress, forage quality declines, and water availability—conditions that can turn on a dime with a tropical system or a late-summer high-pressure dome.

That recurring seasonal pulse is also why late August remains a high-alert window for weather risk in farm country, from tropical cyclones along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts to flash droughts and wildfire weather in the West.

What these August 26 milestones continue to teach

• Resilience is a system, not a single fix: Wind-rated structures, anchored storage, redundant power, and good drainage each offer partial protection; together, they measurably reduce losses.
• Information moves losses: Timely, trusted forecasts and clear decision triggers help producers stage equipment, move livestock, and secure inputs before a storm’s worst arrives.
• Risk management is multi-layered: Crop insurance, disaster programs, and private contingency planning cover different slices of exposure. The most robust operations diversify across all three.
• Representation shapes outcomes: From the county committee room to Congress, who participates in decisions influences how well programs reach diverse producers and how effectively they meet needs on the ground.

The throughline from these dates is straightforward: preparedness, participation, and practical adaptation make a difference. Whether the challenge is a landfalling hurricane, a multi-day flood, or the steady work of building more inclusive farm communities, the choices made in August carry through the harvest—and often into the policies that will govern the next one.