Crop Disasters Declared in Five U.S. States

Drought destroys crops in 53 counties across five states

Drought has destroyed or damaged crops in at least 53 counties across five states: California, Maine, Massachusetts New Hampshire and Vermont.

Disaster Designation # 1

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated a total of 33 counties in California as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a drought that occurred during the period of Jan. 2, 2015, and continuing. Those counties are:

California: Alameda, Fresno, Humboldt, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Los-Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Mono, Monterey, Napa, San-Benito, San-Bernardino, San-Francisco, San-Luis-Obispo, San-Mateo, Santa-Barbara, Santa-Clara, Santa-Cruz, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura

Disaster Designation # 2

USDA has also designated a total of 20 counties across four states—New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont—as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by a recent drought that occurred during the period of Jan. 2, 2015, and continues. Those counties are:

New Hampshire. Belknap, Carroll, Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham, Strafford and Sullivan.

Maine. York County.

Massachusetts. Essex, Franklin, Middlesex and Worcester.

Vermont. Caledonia, Essex, Orange, Windham and Windsor.

All counties listed above were designated crop disaster areas on Dec. 23, 2015.

Crop Disasters 2015

Beginning January 7, 2015 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 4,017 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 North Carolina, Virginia December 19, 2015

• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Montana December 19, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in Alabama, Florida, Georgia December 10, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in the Carolinas December 3, 2015
• Crop Disasters Declared in Kansas December 3, 2015
• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Michigan and Ohio November 26, 2015
• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Six U.S. States November 22, 2015
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index