Crop Disasters Declared in Puerto Rico

Crop disasters declared for 55 Puerto Rico municipalities

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has declared 55 municipalities in Puerto Rico as  crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by high winds from Tropical Storm Erika that occurred from Aug. 27-28, 2015. Those municipalities are:

Adjuntas, Aguas-Buenas, Aibonito, Arecibo, Arroyo, Barranquitas, Bayamón, Caguas, Canovanas, Carolina, Cataño, Cayey, Ceiba, Ciales, Cidra, Coamo, Comerio, Corozal, Culebra, Fajardo, Guayama, Guayanilla, Guaynabo, Gurabo, Guánica, Hatillo, Humacao, Jayuya, Juan, Juana-Diaz, Juncos, Lares, Las-Piedras, Loiza, Luquillo, Maricao, Maunabo, Morovis, Naguabo, Naranjito, Orocovis, Patillas, Peñuelas, Ponce, Río-Grande, Sabana-Grande, Salinas, San, San-Lorenzo, Santa-Isabel, Trujillo-Alto, Utuado, Vieques, Villalba, Yabucoa and Yauco.

All municipalities listed above were designated natural disaster areas on Nov. 12, 2015.

Crop Disasters 2015

Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 3,673 counties and county equivalents across 46 States [as well as Puerto Rico, and US Virgin Islands]: Those states are Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, 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, Rhode Island, 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

• Crop Disasters Declared in 10 U.S. States November 5, 2015
• More Crops Destroyed by EWE in Nine U.S. States October 29, 2015
• 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