Mother Nature has not been very nurturing to the South Carolina logging, construction and lumber industries recently, with building projects being delayed and loggers struggling to find dry, harvestable land.
Neal Branan, president of Orangeburg’s Branan Lumber, said logging has been virtually impossible due to the torrential rains. “You wreck the wood, you can’t get it out of the highways,” Branan said. “It has been a struggle.”
Branan, who is in the wholesale business, said his shipments have been down about half over the last month. “It has slowed a lot of people’s production,” he said. “It has cut it way down.”
The National Weather Service reports that the Orangeburg Municipal Airport weather station has recorded 9.50 inches of rain so far in August, which is 5.66 inches above normal. Since June 1, the airport has received about 24 inches of rain, which is about 10 inches above normal. Branan said, “I can’t remember anything remotely close to this much water in the last 30 years.”
The logging and lumber industry has been impacted by the economy before, but not Mother Nature. “It has affected every aspect of the sawmill and logging industry,” he said. “If you don’t have wood, you can’t produce. Inventory is down as far as the end user.”
From The Times and Democrat: https://thetandd.com/news/local/logging-building-bogged-down-by-rain/article_69409552-0c78-11e3-8ee8-001a4bcf887a.html