More Crops Destroyed by EWE in Nine U.S. States

Drought and deluge, winterkill and severe freeze destroy or damage crops in nine states

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has declared crop disasters in 147 counties across nine states—Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas—due to extreme weather events including drought, excessive rain, flooding, severe freeze and winterkill.

Crop Disaster Areas: Designation # 1  –  Drought 
USDA has designated 29 counties in Texas as crop disaster disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought. Those areas are:

• Texas. Angelina, Borden, Brown, Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Concho, Fisher, Garza, Glasscock, Hardin, Howard, Kent, Liberty, McCulloch, Mitchell, Nolan, Polk, Reagan, Runnels, San Jacinto, Scurry, Sterling, Taylor, Tom Green, Trinity and Tyler counties.

Crop Disaster Areas: Designation # 2  –  Excessive Rain and Flooding
USDA has designated a total of 51 counties across three states—South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina—as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by excessive rain and flooding that occurred from October 1, 2015, and continues. Those areas are:

• South Carolina. Abbeville, Aiken, Allendale, Anderson, Bamberg, Barnwell, Beaufort, Berkeley, Calhoun, Charleston, Chester, Chesterfield, Clarendon, Colleton, Darlington, Dillon, Dorchester, Edgefield, Fairfield, Florence, Georgetown, Greenville, Greenwood, Hampton, Horry, Kershaw, Lancaster, Laurens, Lee, Lexington, Marion, Marlboro, McCormick, Newberry, Orangeburg, Richland, Saluda, Spartanburg, Sumter, Union, Williamsburg and York counties.

• Georgia. Burke, Columbia, Richmond and Screven counties.

• North Carolina. Brunswick, Columbus, Mecklenburg, Robeson and Union counties.

Crop Disaster Areas: Designation # 3  –  Drought
USDA has designated 7 counties in Mississippi and Arkansas as crop disaster disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought. Those areas are:

• Mississippi. Bolivar, Coahoma, Quitman, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, and Tunica counties.

• Arkansas. Phillips County.

Crop Disaster Areas: Designation # 4  –  Winterkill
USDA has designated 14 counties in Minnesota as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by winterkill that occurred from April 25, 2015, through Sept. 10, 2015. Those areas are:

• Minnesota. Becker, Beltrami, Benton, Cass, Clearwater, Crow Wing, Douglas, Hubbard, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Otter Tail, Stearns, Todd and Wadena counties.

Crop Disaster Areas: Designation # 5  – Severe Freezes
USDA has designated 4 counties in Colorado as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by severe freezes that occurred from April 2, 2015, through April 19, 2015.

• Colorado. Delta, Gunnison, Mesa, and Montrose counties.

Crop Disaster Areas: Designation # 6  – Drought
USDA has designated a total of 42 counties in three states—Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma—as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought. Those counties are:

• Arkansas. Arkansas, Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Chicot, Clark, Cleveland, Dallas, Desha, Drew, Faulkner, Garland, Grant, Hempstead, Hot Spring, Howard, Jefferson, Lee, Lincoln, Lonoke, Monroe, Montgomery, Nevada, Ouachita, Perry, Phillips, Pike, Polk, Prairie, Pulaski, Saline, Scott, Sevier, St. Francis, White, Woodruff and Yell.
  

• Mississippi. Bolivar, Coahoma and Tunica.

• Oklahoma. Le Flore and McCurtain.

All counties and parishes listed above were designated natural disaster areas on Oct. 28, 2015.

Crop Disasters 2015

Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 3,500 counties Those states are Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, 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 and Wyoming.

• About 99 percent of the 2015 crop disaster designations have been 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

• Drought, Deluge Destroy Crops in 12 States October 22, 2015
• Drought, Freeze… Kill Crops in 173 Counties across 7 States October 16, 2015
• Drought Destroys or Damages Crops in Three U.S. States October 8, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared across Multiple Areas October 1, 2015
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index