WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 66 counties in Alabama as primary natural disaster areas due to to excessive rain, flooding and flash flooding that occurred during the period of Jan. 1, 2009, and continuing.
The designation covers every county in the state with the exception of Coosa County; however, Coosa County also will be eligible for natural disaster assistance since it is named as a contiguous county for this disaster.
“President Obama and I understand these conditions caused severe damage to the area and serious harm to farms in Alabama and we want to help,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This action will provide help to hundreds of farmers who suffered significant production losses a wide variety of crops, including field crops, pasture, forage, vegetables, fruit and nuts.”
Farmers and ranchers in the counties listed below in the adjacent states of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous.
Florida:
Escambia, Holmes, Jackson, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton
Georgia:
Carroll, Clay, Floyd, Heard, Quitman, Troup, Chattahoochee, Dade, Haralson, Muscogee, Seminole, Walker, Chatooga, Early, Harris, Polk, Stewart
Mississippi:
Clarke, Greene, Jackson, Lauderdale, Monroe, Tishomingo, George, Itawamba, Kemper, Lowndes, Noxubee, Wayne
Tennessee:
Franklin, Hardin, Lincoln, Wayne, Giles, Lawrence, Marion
All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas Dec. 23, 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 producers may contact their local USDA Service Centers for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online.