Big Horn County designated as primary natural disaster area

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue designated two Wyoming counties as primary natural disaster areas. Producers in Big Horn and Laramie counties, who suffered losses due to hail, high winds, excessive rain, flash flooding, lightning and tornadoes, may be eligible for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loans.

This designation by Secretary Perdue allows FSA to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters. Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including replacing essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganizing a farming operation or refinance certain debts.

HAILSTORM AND HIGH WINDS

Producers in Big Horn County, who suffered losses from a hailstorm and high winds that occurred on July 26, 2018, may apply for an emergency loan to help cover part of their actual losses.

Producers in the contiguous counties of Johnson, Park, Sheridan, Washakie in Wyoming, along with Big Horn and Carbon counties in Montana, are also eligible to apply for emergency loans.

EXCESSIVE RAIN, FLASH FLOODING, HAIL, HIGH WINDS, LIGHTNING AND TORNADOES

Producers in Laramie County, who suffered losses from excessive rain, flash flooding, hail, high winds, lightning and tornadoes that occurred July 29 through Aug. 7, 2018, may apply for an emergency loan to help cover part of their actual losses.

Producers in the contiguous counties of Albany, Goshen and Platte in Wyoming, along with Larimer and Weld counties in Colorado, and Banner and Kimball counties in Nebraska, are also eligible to apply for emergency loans.

The deadline to apply for these emergency loans is June 17, 2019.

FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability.

FSA has a variety of addition programs to help farmers recover from the impacts of this disaster. FSA programs that do not require a disaster declaration include: Operating and Farm Ownership Loans; the Emergency Conservation Program; Livestock Forage Disaster Program; Livestock Indemnity Program; Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program; and the Tree Assistance Program.

Farmers may contact their local USDA service center for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Additional information is also available online at https://www.farmers.gov/recover.