North Carolina crops seen surviving storm Hanna

SALVO, N.C., Sept 5 (Reuters) - Tobacco and other crops still unharvested in North Carolina should not be severely impacted by Tropical Storm Hanna unless it produces large amounts of rain, officials said on Friday.

"Unless we get a substantial amount of rain, like 10 inches (25 cm) or something, I don't foresee it being a devastation," Natalie Sanchez, a statistician with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, told Reuters by telephone from her Raleigh office.

More than half of the state's $500,000 tobacco crop is still in the field with soybeans, cotton and much of its corn still to be harvested, she said.

Through Sept. 2, 41 percent of North Carolina's flue-cured tobacco and 17 percent of its sorghum had been harvested, the agriculture department said on its website (here).

No figures were available for soybeans, cotton and corn.

About 97 percent of the state's peaches and 35 percent of its apples had been gathered, the report said. (Reporting by Gene Cherry, editing by Jane Sutton)