Kansas Counties Designated Disasters

September 11, 2000

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman has designated 68 counties in Kansas as agriculture disaster areas because of crop damage due to severe drought, excessive heat, high winds, hail and flooding that took place this summer. The counties of Anderson, Atchison, Barton, Chase, Chautauqua, Cheyenne, Coffey, Decatur, Elk, Jewell, Johnson, Leavenworth, Lyon, Marshall, Mitchell, Morris, Norton, Osage, Phillips, Republic, Rooks, Stafford, Wabaunsee, Washington, and Wyandotte were named as primary disaster areas.

"This year's hot, dry weather has hit soybean and hay farmers hard, as well as cattlemen, who are already feeding their stock from their winter supplies," said Glickman, who was scheduled to visit the Kansas State Fair over the weekend. "USDA is in the process of evaluating additional drought impacted counties in Kansas for disaster designation."

Also eligible, because they are contiguous counties, are Allen, Bourbon, Brown, Butler, Clay, Cloud, Cowley, Dickinson, Doniphan, Douglas, Edwards, Ellis, Ellsworth, Franklin, Geary, Graham, Greenwood, Jackson, Jefferson, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Miami, Montgomery, Nemaha, Osborne, Ottawa, Pawnee, Pottawatomie, Pratt, Reno, Rice, Riley, Rush, Russell, Shawnee, Sheridan, Sherman, Smith, Thomas, Trego, Wilson, and Woodson counties in Kansas.

Contiguous counties in other states include Buchanan, Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties in Missouri; Franklin, Furnas, Gage, Harlan, Pawnee, Red Willow counties in Nebraska; and Osage and Washington counties in Oklahoma. Other contiguous counties in Kansas and adjacent states already have been designated or named for these disasters.

Glickman's designation makes all qualified family-sized farm operators in both primary and contiguous counties eligible for low-interest emergency loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of this declaration to apply for the loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available, repayment ability, and other eligibility requirements.

Some counties in Kansas also may be eligible for the Emergency Conservation Program, which provides cost-share assistance to supply water for livestock and other conservation measures. Nationally, $4.2 million is available for ECP funding.

USDA also has extended emergency grazing on Conservation Reserve Program acreage in some Kansas counties, providing assistance to approved producers whose pastures have been decimated by drought and other natural disasters.