As Hurricane Idalia grew closer to Florida’s Big Bend on Monday, August 28 — just two days before it would hit land — many residents were prepping for the storm.

But for Alvin “Ab” Townsend and his nephew Rick Greiner, there was a different kind of preparation taking place. Tuesday is sale day at their Townsend Livestock Market, and it was business as usual, despite the uncertainty of what might come.

“I started calling some of our buyers,” Greiner says. “And as long as they were going to buy cattle, we were going to have a sale.”

So, sell cattle they did. They got through 400 head before they needed to shut down and head home.

Early Wednesday morning, the Category 3 hurricane made landfall. Greiner couldn’t get out of his house, but Townsend — along with his wife and sister — were able to drive to the auction market that’s been in the family for four generations.

At first, he thought they were at the wrong place.

“It didn’t look anything like our place,” Townsend says. “Everything was just on the dirt. The building, our pens, everything was just on the dirt.”

Moving On 

Before Wednesday had ended, the family had called John Kissee, regional executive officer at Livestock Marketing Association. As longtime members, as well as clients of the association’s Livestock Marketing Insurance Agency, they knew they were covered. 

Kissee understood Ab and Rick would want to move quickly but took time to ensure all bases were covered, insurance-wise. Kissee called back the following day, as promised. He told them the tear down and clean up could begin after taking photos to document the damage.

By Monday, excavators were scraping the slab where the auction market once stood. Greiner says they had no choice but to move quickly, and they had no intention of missing more than one sale day. They started getting pens up and brainstorming how they’d hold the following week’s auction with less-than-ideal infrastructure. 

To be safe, they didn’t advertise. And yet, they still got 400 head. It went well and they doubled their numbers the following week.

Of course, there were challenges to selling in such makeshift facilities — like the Tuesday it rained all day and there was no barn to offer cover.
But Greiner says they remained grateful through it all.

“You don’t have to look very far to see somebody who’s got it worse than what we had,” he says. “We’re just lucky to be back to work and selling good cattle for our good producers.”

A Helping Hand

Both men are quick to credit the role Livestock Marketing Insurance Agency played in their recovery efforts.

“I wouldn’t want to imagine not having Mr. John to call,” Greiner says. 
Townsend agrees.

“The thing with insurance,” the third-generation auction market operator says, “is you don’t need it until something happens. But then when something happens you better thank the Good Lord you had it. Because what would we have done?”

Not only did Kissee and the insurance adjuster make the process a breeze, but Townsend says it never felt like a business transaction.

“They’re more than just a company,” he says. “LMIA is a group of people who cares.”