USDA Declares Disaster Areas in Colorado, Maine, Texas

WASHINGTON - Mar 19/04 - SNS -- The USDA named several counties in Colorado, Maine, Texas and Washington state which are considered primary agricultural disaster areas.

In Colorado, Logan County is designated as a primary disaster area due to damages and losses caused by drought that began on Jan. 1, 2004. Also eligible because they are contiguous are the counties of Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Weld.

Cheyenne and Phillips Counties are also designated as primary disaster areas due to losses that were caused by drought that began on July 1, 2003. Kiowa and Lincoln Counties are named as contiguous disaster counties.

In Maine, Aroostook, Franklin, Oxford and Penobscot counties are designated as primary disaster areas due to losses caused by excessive rainthat occurred from June 1, 2003, and continuing. The following counties are designated as contiguous for the same disaster:

Androscoggin       Kennebec              Waldo
Cumberland         Piscataquis           Washington
Hancock            Somerset              York

Hansford County, Texas, is designated as a primary natural disaster area due to rain, flooding, hail, winds, lightning and tornadoes that occurred on June 5, 2003, and June 9, 2003. Also named as contiguous counties for this same disaster are Hutchinson, Moore, Ochiltroc, Roberts and Sherman.

In Washington the following counties are designated as primary disaster areas due to losses caused by drought that occurred from May 1, 2003, and continuing:

Asotin       Garfield         Lincoln           Spokane
Chelan       Grays Harbor     Mason             Stevens
Columbia     King             Pacific           Thurston
Douglas      Kitsap           Pend Oreille      Walla Walla
Ferry        Lewis            Pierce            Whitman

The following counties are designated as contiguous disaster areas:

Adams           Jefferson        Snohomish
Benton          Kittitas         Wahkiakum
Cowlitz         Okanogan         Yakima
Franklin        Skagit
Grant           Skamania

These counties were designated on Mar. 17, 2004, making all qualified farm operators eligible for low-interest emergency (EM) loans from the 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 the 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 available, in addition to the emergency loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity.

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