Escambia Declared Natural Disaster Area Due To Rain, Flooding

September 23, 2013

Escambia counties in Florida and Alabama have been declared natural disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by excessive rain and flooding that began January 1, 2013, and continues.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 50 counties in Alabama as the primary natural disaster areas. Farmers and ranchers in Escambia County in Alabama and Escambia County in Florida qualify for natural disaster assistance because their counties are contiguous.

“Our hearts go out to those Alabama farmers and ranchers affected by recent natural disasters,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “President Obama and I are committed to ensuring that agriculture remains a bright spot in our nation’s economy by sustaining the successes of America’s farmers, ranchers and rural communities through these difficult times. We’re also telling Alabama producers that USDA stands with you and your communities when severe weather and natural disasters threaten to disrupt your livelihood.”

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 programs available to assist farmers and ranchers include 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. Additional information is also available online at http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov.

Pictured above and below: Taking advantage of a dry day, a crop duster is used to apply pesticides to a corn field in Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

7 Responses to “Escambia Declared Natural Disaster Area Due To Rain, Flooding”

  1. teresa on September 24th, 2013 1:20 pm

    The people that don’t expect to government to help farmers must grow their own food?? I come from a farm family and I assure you these people deserve help. They are hard working Americans and pay taxes. If your office were to burn down you would get unemployment….

  2. Mark on September 23rd, 2013 8:39 pm

    @Mick

    So every time farmers get in trouble, the government is supposed to be there with open checkbooks and “give” them the money?

  3. John on September 23rd, 2013 8:33 pm

    @Frank The corn in New Orleans is for export to China and other countries. China only exports 50 metric tons of corn a year. The United States will export 31751 metric tons of corn in 2013. The United States is the largest eporter of corn.We don’t need China corn.There is a lot of different types of grain in storage for export. The problem is they store tons of this stuff to get the best price. The more they have in storage the harder it is for the farmers to sell.

  4. Frank on September 23rd, 2013 5:01 pm

    Some friends of mine could not sell their corn, and found out, the reason was that there was a ship from China with like a Billion tons of corn in storage New Orleans. What is wrong with that picture? China minimum wage is what .50 a day?

  5. John on September 23rd, 2013 12:04 pm

    @mick
    All the money the government hands out is not free my taxes go for all these handouts. I have never gotten a dime from the government and have worked 47 years and payed taxes for all these years. Iam sure the farmers don’t mind paying it back it’s cheaper than going to the bank. The government didn’t have to declare the counties a natural disister area.

  6. mick on September 23rd, 2013 10:50 am

    The farmers should not have to repay this disaster relief, damn if the government really wants to help these folks well then help them and quit attaching conditions for repayment…

  7. Jane on September 23rd, 2013 5:45 am

    I assume the cost of cotton, corn, soybeans, etc. will go up. Good for farmers…hope some of their crops made it OK!

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News