This Secretarial natural disaster designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation, or to refinance certain debts. FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available, and repayment ability.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, these counties suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of 1) D2 Drought-Severe for eight or more consecutive weeks or 2) D3 Drought-Extreme or D4 Drought-Exceptional.
Counties designated as Primary Natural Disaster Areas for Drought are Aransas, Colorado, DeWitt, Duval, Jackson, Jim Hogg, Lavaca, Menard, Nueces, Refugio, Starr, Victoria, Webb and Zapata. Counties designated as contiguous counties that are also eligible are Austin, Bee, Brooks, Calhoun, Concho, Dimmit, Fayette, Goliad, Gonzales, Hidalgo, Jim Wells, Karnes, Kimble, Kleberg, LaSalle, Live Oak, McCulloch, McMullen, Mason, Matagorda, Maverick, San Patricio, Schleicher, Sutton, Tom Green and Wharton.
