A year after Helene, Georgia farmers to see huge federal relief package
For Georgia farmers and timber owners’ devastated by Hurricane Helene, the long wait for more federal aid to trim their storm losses could soon be over.
Georgia will receive more than $531 million in federal funding to help producers rebound from the hurricane, the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday.
The money will come to Georgia as a block grant, which state officials can distribute to individual, affected farms. The funding will cover future losses and infrastructure damage costs, and unlike with some other federal assistance programs, timberland owners are eligible for the aid.
The announcement comes a little more than a year after Helene passed through Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas and Tennessee, leaving historic damage in its wake.
Helene was likely the most destructive hurricane in Georgia history, causing an estimated $5.5 billion in direct and indirect losses to the state’s agriculture and forestry industries. An estimated 250 lives were lost in the storm and its aftermath nationwide, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And the nearly $79 billion in total damage it triggered across the Southeast made it the U.S.’s seventh-costliest tropical storm on record.
In the year since the storm, some producers have tapped into existing USDA programs, plus roughly $300 million provided by the state to help them clean up and stay afloat. But the federal block grant is expected to provide the most significant boost yet to Georgia’s agriculture and timber sectors, which have been pinched by trade wars and rising costs, on top of storm losses.
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said the money will “provide much-needed relief” and thanked his federal counterpart, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, for the support.
“This funding is absolutely essential to help our farm families bounce back from Hurricane Helene, and our team invested hundreds of hours into the negotiation process to secure the maximum possible amount of federal funding for our state and our producers,” Harper said in a statement.
Gov. Brian Kemp called the announcement, “Great news for Georgia’s farming families and our No. 1 industry!” and praised Harper and the GDA’s work to secure the funds.
“This will cover as many Georgia farmers as possible, and I’m thankful for their tireless efforts as we continue to support hard-hit communities still recovering from Helene,” Kemp added in a statement.
Rollins in a statement said the funding shows “President Trump has our farmers’ backs and will ensure they have the resources they need to continue to produce the safest, most reliable, and most abundant food supply in the world.”
The funding Georgia will receive comes from a $21 billion pot of disaster aid passed last year by Congress in the last weeks of the Biden administration.
The USDA and state agriculture department said they are still working on the final details of the block grant agreement. Once those are ironed out, the agencies said they will provide the information affected producers need to apply for funding.
Editor’s note: This is a breaking news story. Return to AJC.com for updates.
About the Author
Drew Kann is a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering climate change and environmental issues. His passion is for stories that capture how humans are responding to a changing environment. He is a proud graduate of the University of Georgia and Northwestern University, and prior to joining the AJC, he held various roles at CNN.
