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 ERATH, La. (AP) - When the wave of black water descended on this town, the fields of sugarcane were ripe, tall, green shoots bursting with sugar. "This entire field was a lake," recalled Clay DuPlantis, standing in one of the decimated fields his family has farmed for seven generations.
Thousands of acres of cane ready to be harvested were soaked in saltwater as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita pounded the Gulf of Mexico 35 miles away. When the sea water receded, much of the cane was damaged and the fields were filled with torn-off porches, picnic tables, splintered furniture and stinking moss.
The loss of the Louisiana sugarcane and disruptions at two sugar refineries in New Orleans sent a shock through the sugar industry, which was already dealing with shortages because of hurricane-damaged crops in Florida last year.
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