Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and Representatives Marion Berry (AR-01), Vic Snyder (AR-02), John Boozman (AR-03), and Mike Ross (AR-04) today called on the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to designate 26 Arkansas counties a “Secretarial Disaster” after months of record rain and extensive flooding have devastated crops, placing the livelihoods of Arkansas’s farmers and ranchers at risk. The designation would allow farmers and ranchers to be eligible for emergency loans.
In a letter to Secretary Tom Vilsack, the Arkansas officials wrote in support of Governor Beebe’s request for a Secretarial Disaster Designation for those counties that have suffered agricultural devastation due to excessive rainfall and extensive flooding from June 1, 2009, and continuing.
“This will allow the Farm Services Agency to make emergency loans available to the eligible farmers and ranchers whose lives and livelihoods were affected by this natural disaster,” the delegation members wrote.
The following is a list of the 26 Arkansas counties Governor Beebe submitted for Secretarial Disaster Designation:
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Ashley
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Desha
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Lafayette
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Perry
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St. Francis
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Bradley
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Faulkner
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Lincoln
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Phillips
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Union
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Calhoun
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Independence
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Little River
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Poinsett
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White
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Chicot
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Jackson
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Miller
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Pope
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Woodruff
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Conway
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Jefferson
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Monroe
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Prairie
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Yell
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Cross
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