WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2009 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated
19 counties in Georgia as primary natural disaster areas due to losses caused by severe storms and flooding that occurred from Sept. 18, 2009, and continuing.
The 19 counties are:
Bartow, Cherokee, Gordon, Oconee, Walton, Carroll, Cobb, Lumpkin, Paulding, Whitfield, Catoosa, Crawford, Morgan, Rabun, Wilcox, Chattooga, Douglas, Murray and Walker
“President Obama and I understand these conditions caused severe damage to the area and serious harm to farms in Georgia and we want to help,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This action will provide help to hundreds of farmers who suffered significant production losses to corn, cotton, soybeans and forage, as well as vegetable and fruit crops.”
Farm operators in the counties listed below in Georgia also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous. Those counties are:
Barrow, Dodge, Gwinnett, Oglethorpe, Taylor, Ben Hill, Dooly, Habersham, Peach, Telfair, Bibb, Fannin, Hall, Pickens, Towns, Clarke, Floyd, Haralson, Polk, Turner, Coweta, Forsyth, Heard, Pulaski, Union, Crisp, Fulton, Jasper, Putnam, Upson, Dade, Gilmer, Monroe, Rockdale, White, Dawson, Greene and Newton
Farm operators in the counties listed below in the adjacent states of Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous.
Alabama: Cherokee, Cleburne, DeKalb and Randolph
North Carolina: Clay, Jackson and Macon
South Carolina: Oconee
Tennessee: Bradley, Hamilton and Polk
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas Dec. 4, 2009, making all qualified farm operators in the designated areas eligible for low interest emergency (EM) loans from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. FSA has variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.
USDA has also made other programs available to assist farmers and ranchers, including the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE), which was approved as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008; the Emergency Conservation Program; Federal Crop Insurance; and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program. Interested farmers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs.