Drought and Deluge, Hail and Severe Freezing Destroy Crops in 7 States

Crop disasters declared for 70 counties across seven states

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated a total of 70 counties in seven states:  Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming—as crop disaster areas due to losses caused by multiple disasters including drought, severe flooding and hail, as well as severe  freezing.

Disaster Designations due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought

• Washington. Adams, Benton, Columbia, Douglas Franklin, Garfield, Grant, King, Klickitat, Kittitas, Lewis, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pierce, Skamania,Walla Walla,Whitman and  Yakima counties.

• Oregon Gilliam, Hood River, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Wallowa and Wasco counties.

Disaster Designations due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought

• Oregon. Baker, Gilliam, Grant, Morrow Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wasco and Wheeler counties.
• Idaho. Adams, Idaho and Nez Perce counties.
• Washington. Asotin, Benton, Columbia, Garfield, Klickitat and Walla Walla counties.

Disaster Designations due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought

• Idaho. Bingham, Butte, Bonneville, Clark, Fremont, Jefferson, Lemhiand, and Madison  counties.
• Montana. Beaverhead County.

Disaster Designations due to losses caused by severe flooding and hail that occurred on June 3, 2015, and continues

• Wyoming. Converse, Goshen, Niobrara, Platte and Weston counties.
• Nebraska. Sioux County.
• South Dakota. Cluster and Fall River counties.

Disaster Designations due to damages and losses caused by severe freezing that occurred from Nov. 13, 2014, through Jan. 2, 2015

• Oregon. Clackamas, Gilliam, Hood River, Jefferson, Marion, Sherman, Wasco and Wheeler counties.
• Washington. Klickitat County.

Crop Disasters 2015

Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 1,329 counties across 22 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.

About 99 percent of the 2015 crop disaster designations so far are due to drought.

Crop Disasters 2014

In 2014, USDA declared crop disasters in at least 2,904 counties across 44 states. Most of the designations were due to drought.

Those states were:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan. Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. [FIRE-EARTH has documented all of the above listings. See blog content.]

Notes:
i. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.

ii. The counties designated as agricultural disaster areas, as listed above, include both primary and contiguous disaster areas.

iii. Some counties may have been designated as crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.

iv. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.

v. The five disaster designations posted above were approved by USDA on June 24, 2015 (posted on their website on June 25).

Related Links

• Crop Disasters Declared in Three States June 19, 2015
• Drought Disaster Declared for Counties in Two States June 12, 2015
• Drought Destroys More Crops in Idaho, Oregon, Utah June 4, 2015
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index