USDA declares disaster area from historic flood

by Wally Northway

Published: June 11,2010

Tags: agriculture, disaster recovery, disaster relief, natural disaster, Weather

NORTH MISSISSIPPI — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 13 counties in Tennessee as a natural disaster area due to excessive rainfall, flooding and flash flooding began April 30 and continues. Four contiguous Mississippi counties are also included in the declaration.

The Mississippi counties are Alcorn, Benton, Marshall and Tippah.

The Tennessee counties are Benton, Fayette, Humphreys, Maury, Perry, Chester, Hardeman, Lauderdale, McNairy, Stewart, Dickson, Hickman and Lewis. Farmers and ranchers in the following counties in Tennessee also qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous: Carroll, Dyer, Henderson, Madison, Tipton, Cheatham, Giles, Henry, Marshall, Wayne, Crockett, Hardin, Houston, Montgomery, Williamson, Decatur, Haywood, Lawrence and Shelby.

Also included are Mississippi County in Arkansas and Calloway, Christian and Trigg counties in Kentucky.

All counties listed above were designated natural disaster areas June 10, 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 a variety of programs, in addition to the EM loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.

Additional information is also available online at disaster.fsa.usda.gov.