Georgia Department of Agriculture Tommy Irvin, Commissioner
19 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. SW Atlanta, GA 30334

PRESS RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2004

For information contact: Arty Schronce or Jackie Sosby (404) 656-3689

116 Counties Receive Agricultural Disaster Designation Due to Damage From Frances
ATLANTA Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin announced that United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman has declared disaster designation for 116 counties due to losses caused by Hurricane Frances and its accompanying thunderstorms and tornadoes that occurred September 4 through September 7.

The designation allows farmers to apply for low-interest emergency loans from the Farm Service Agency, provided eligibility requirements are met.

The secretary's declaration lists 83 counties as primary natural disaster areas and 33 counties as contiguous disaster counties. To receive a disaster designation, a county must have incurred a loss of 30 percent or more in dollar value for all crops, or of a single crop or group of crops, such as all feed crops or all fruit crops. Contiguous disaster counties are those that border primary disaster counties. Farmers in the contiguous counties are also eligible to apply for the low-interest loans.

Counties named as primary natural disaster areas are: Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bibb, Bleckley, Brantley, Brooks, Bulloch, Burke, Butts, Calhoun, Camden, Charlton, Chatham, Chattahoochee, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Crawford, Decatur, Dodge, Dooly, Dougherty, Echols, Emanuel, Evans, Glascock, Grady, Greene, Hancock, Harris, Henry, Houston, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Lamar, Lanier, Laurens, Lee, Long, Lowndes,

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116 Counties Receive Agricultural Disaster Designation Page 2
Macon, Marion, Miller, Mitchell, Monroe, Montgomery, Muscogee, Peach, Pierce, Pike, Pulaski, Schley, Seminole, Spalding, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taliaferro, Tattnall, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Toombs, Treutlen, Turner, Twiggs, Upson, Ware, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler, Wilcox, Wilkinson and Worth. Those named as contiguous disaster counties are: Baldwin, Bryan, Candler, Clay, Clayton, Cook, Coweta, Crisp, Dekalb, Early, Effingham, Fayette, Glynn, Irwin, Jasper, Jones, Liberty, McDuffie, McIntosh, Meriwether, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Putnam, Quitman, Randolph, Richmond, Rockdale, Screven, Troup, Warren and Wilkes.
The Farm Service Agency will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. Local FSA offices can provide affected farmers in the designated counties with further information and assist them in completing loan applications.
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