Deal seeks drought disaster aid for 157 of 159 counties

By Fran Jeffries

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Nathan Deal is asking the federal government to designate all but two Georgia counties disaster areas as farmers in the state struggle through a lingering drought.

Through Aug. 23, every county in the state was experiencing some level of drought. More than half of Georgia's counties were experiencing extreme drought, according to the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

The disaster designation would make emergency federal loans and other assistance available to farmers.

Earlier this summer U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak named 22 counties in South Georgia federal disaster areas. Now the drought is spreading.

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black says conditions are poor everywhere. “I don’t have to travel too far. I can go right out in my back yard or right out into my pastures and our pasture conditions at home, we raise beef cattle, and they are certainly, I believe to be as poor as they’ve ever been at this particular time,” Black told Georgia Public Broadcasting.

To qualify, counties must sustain a 30-percent loss in at least one commodity.

The only counties that did not qualify as primary counties in the request are Chattahoochee and Muscogee counties on the Alabama state line. If the request is approved by Vilsack,  Chattahoochee and Muscogee would qualify as contiguous disaster counties and growers in those counties would be eligible to apply for emergency loans and other USDA programs as well.

State climatologist David Stooksbury on Thursday declared this summer one of the hottest on record. Stooksbury, an associate professor at the University of Georgia, said Alma, Athens, Augusta, Columbus and Savannah reported the highest average temperatures ever for the months of June, July and August; Macon, the second-highest, and Atlanta, the third.

Atlanta, with 133 years of data, had an average mean temperature of 82.3 degrees – 3.6 degrees above average – and the average high of 92.5 degrees, 4.5 degrees above average, Stooksbury said in a news release.

More information on the secretarial disaster designation process and programs available to farmers can be found at the USDA website.