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Governor Steve Beshear's Communications Office
USDA Grants Secretarial Disaster Designation to 29 Kentucky Counties
FRANKFORT, Ky.– Governor Steve Beshear today announced that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has granted his request for disaster assistance to Kentucky farm families in 29 counties, due to severe weather conditions that occurred beginning April 17, 2011.
“We are pleased that Sec. Vilsack has issued this disaster designation for Kentucky’s farm families,” said Gov. Beshear. “The severe storms and flooding impacted all facets of Kentucky’s agricultural industry, and assistance from the USDA will help offset resulting income losses.”
After a review of Loss Assessment Reports and other information submitted by Kentucky’s Farm Service Agency Executive Director John McCauley, the USDA determined that there were sufficient production losses to warrant a Secretarial natural disaster designation in 11 counties. Primary counties included in this disaster designation are as follows:
Ballard
Crittenden
Hancock
Henderson
Hopkins
Livingston
Logan
McLean
Ohio
Trimble
Union
Also as a result of this designation, 18 contiguous counties are eligible for assistance. Those counties are as follows:
Breckinridge
Butler
Caldwell
Carlisle
Carroll
Christian
Daviess
Grayson
Henry
Lyon
Marshall
McCracken
Muhlenberg
Oldham
Simpson
Todd
Warren
Webster
A Secretarial disaster designation provides farm families, meeting eligibility requirements, in both primary and contiguous counties the opportunity to be considered for disaster assistance from FSA, including emergency loans and Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE) Program. Farmers in eligible counties have until Feb. 4, 2012 to apply for emergency loan assistance. SURE Program applications for 2011 crop losses will be accepted in 2012 when the 2011 farm revenue data becomes available.
“For the counties that were not approved, there is still a process for individual farmers who sustained more than 50 percent of crop loss to qualify for supplemental assistance,” Beshear said. “We want to continue to work hard at the local, state and federal level to ensure Kentucky farmers receive as much help as possible to rebound from this most recent disaster.”
Information about USDA Disaster Assistance Programs and the Secretarial disaster designation process are available at www.fsa.usda.gov by clicking on the Disaster Assistance Program link in the left-hand column.
Local FSA offices can provide affected farmers with further information. To locate the office that services your county, visit http://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app?state=ky&agency=fsa.
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