The annual Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee Rural Tourism Conference will be in Natchez Oct. 21-23.

From agricultural damage to financial challenges, the effects of a natural disaster can be physically and emotionally overwhelming for farmers and residents of an impacted region. As those in the Mississippi Delta and surrounding areas continue to cope and begin recovery from recent devastating floods, faculty and staff in Mississippi State’s Extension Service and Department of Psychology are extending reminders that can help.

Mississippi’s 259 rice-producing farms rank the state No. 5 nationally in rice production, a fact highlighted in September when Mississippians are urged to “Think Rice.”

Between her job and her home, Tracey Porter has not had a break from dealing with flooding in the last six months.

Porter is the deputy director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency, and her husband, Rodney, farms in the southern Mississippi Delta. Excessive rain last winter and spring kept 250,000 acres of farmland out of production this year. During the time when he would normally prepare for planting season, Rodney Porter was building sandbag levees to protect flood waters from invading their home. She helped him when she was not on the clock assisting other affected people in her community.

Controller’s Generation II and Controller’s Generation III 4-H club members in Oktibbeha County pick produce from a community garden in Maben, Mississippi, on August 6, 2019.