Feds Offering Emergency Loans To Most Illinois Farmers After Extensive Flooding
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Farmers in every county in Illinois except one have been made eligible to receive low-interest loans from the federal government, to help them recover from extensive damage caused by flooding.
DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, and Will counties were included in the list of 87 counties designated as natural disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Illinois, due to damages and losses caused by heavy rain and flooding this spring and summer.
Cook, McHenry, and 12 other counties were designated as ""contiguous disaster areas," which means farmers there also are eligible for assistance, because of their proximity to other counties that saw major flooding.
"Our hearts go out to those Illinois farmers and ranchers affected by recent natural disasters," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Farmers across Illinois have been feeling the pinch, after record rainfall in April and June.
"I was able to get a couple hundred acres planted in April. The unusual thing is it started raining, and I sat for two weeks without being able to get back into the fields to continue planting. Forty years of planting, that's the first time I've ever sat that long," said Kane County Farm Bureau president Joe White.
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The saturated soil made it difficult for White and other farmers to get crops in the ground in April. Further flooding later in the summer delayed planting even more.
"The ground conditions weren't the best once we got back into the field. Saturated soils made it difficult to get the crop into the ground, but then once we were able to get it planted, then it started raining, and we've got a lot of areas in fields that are drowned out from water standing," he said. "So that all adds up in the end."
White said farmers have been lucky to have profitable years for the past four or five years, so many had cash in the bank to help them cope with the flooding.
"The question becomes what happens next year?" he said.
The 87 counties designated as natural disaster areas are: Adams, Alexander, Bond, Brown, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Champaign, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Cumberland, DeKalb, DeWitt, Douglas, DuPage, Edwards, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Franklin, Fulton, Gallatin, Greene, Grundy, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jersey, Johnson, Kane, Kankakee, Knox, La Salle, Lawrence, Lee, Livingston, Logan, McDonough, McLean, Macon, Macoupin, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Massac, Menard, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Peoria, Perry, Piatt, Pike, Pope, Pulaski, Putnam, Randolph, Richland, Rock Island, St. Clair, Saline, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Stark, Tazewell, Union, Vermilion, Wabash, Warren, Washington, Wayne, White, Whiteside, Will, Williamson, and Woodford.
The 14 counties designated contiguous disaster areas are: Boone, Bureau, Christian, Coles, Cook, Edgar, Jo Daviess, Kendall, McHenry, Moultrie, Ogle, Shelby, Stephenson, Winnebago.
The only county in Illinois not on either list was Lake County.
