Drought Destroys or Damages Crops in Three U.S. States

Crop disasters declared in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated a total of at least 35 counties across three states—Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas—as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by drought. Those counties are:

Drought Crop Disaster Areas – Disaster Designation #1 (total of 20 counties)

• Arkansas. Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Clark, Cleveland, Columbia, Dallas, Drew, Hempstead, Lafayette, Little River, Miller, Nevada, Ouachita and Union counties.
• Louisiana. Bossier, Caddo and Webster parishes.
• Texas. Bowie and Cass counties.

Drought Crop Disaster Areas – Disaster Designation #2 (total of 15 counties)

• Texas. Anderson, Atascosa, Bexar, Cherokee, Ellis, Freestone, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Henderson, Karnes, Kaufman, Navarro, Smith, Van Zandt and Wilson counties.

All counties listed above were designated as crop disaster areas on Oct. 7, 2015.

USDA has issued a correction for counties in Mississippi designated as crop disaster areas on September 23, 2015, in release number 0139.15. The correction is posted at http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/newsReleases

Crop Disasters 2015

Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 2,923 (2891+35-3) counties and county equivalents across 43 States [as well as Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands]: Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, Wyoming.

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

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.

Related Links

• Crop Disasters Declared across Multiple Areas October 1, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared across CONUS, Puerto Rico September 25, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in Multiple Counties across Central U.S. September 17, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in 191 Counties across 10 U.S. States September 10, 2015
• Drought and Deluge, Hail and Heavy Rain Destroy Crops in U.S. September 4, 2015
• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in 9 States, USVI August 27, 2015
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index