(The Center Square) – Applications for $16 billion in federal assistance for North Carolina agricultural producers who suffered crop losses from Hurricane Helene and other natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 are opening this week.
Secretary Brooke Rollins of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program is mailing prefilled applications immediately and will receive applications at USDA Farm Service Agency offices beginning Thursday.
“American farmers are no stranger to natural disasters that cause losses that leave no region or crop unscathed,” Rollins said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, USDA has worked around the clock to deliver this relief directly to our farmers. We are taking swift action to ensure farmers will have the resources they need to continue to produce the safest, most reliable, and most abundant food supply in the world.”
Rollins earlier said a plan is in place for Congress to appropriate $30 billion to farmers and ranchers this year. Fourteen states – including North Carolina – are collaborating with USDA for state block grants.
Eligible losses in the two years are from wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, tornadoes, winter storms, freeze including from a polar vortex, smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought and other related conditions, the USDA said.
This weekend will begin the 42nd week of recovery from Helene. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26. The storm killed 107 in North Carolina, 236 in the South, and caused an estimated $60 billion damage in the Tarheel State.
It was expected to come north to the Appalachian Mountains; however, the rainfall total from its dissipation there exceeded all forecasts. Some places got more than 30 inches, most were at 24 inches or more. Due to terrain, water often rushed before it pooled and flooded – very unlike the flooding that happens in the coastal plains.
State lawmakers have approved five fiscal packages worth more than $2.1 billion.
Congress approved in December about $9 billion of a $110 billion package to the state. This does not include FEMA money. The value of FEMA’s assistance package to North Carolinians recovering from Helene has eclipsed $1 billion.
