USDA Begins Issuing Relief Payments for 2018 Flooding, Excessive Rain

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun issuing payments to farmers who applied for relief to help offset crop damage and losses due to natural disasters in 2018 and 2019, including excessive rainfall and flooding that affected 39 Pennsylvania counties in the summer of 2018.

Payments began June 15 to producers who signed up for the Quality Loss Adjustment Program and Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus. USDA accepted applications for the QLA program, provides assistance to crop and forage producers who suffered a quality loss, through April 9 and will be able to pay out 100 percent of the calculated assistance. Producers who applied for WHIP+ previously received 40 percent of their calculated payment due to budget constraints and are now receiving an additional 50 percent, for a total payment of 90 percent of the full amount for which they were eligible.

Pennsylvania counties that were eligible to apply for relief include: Adams, Blair, Bradford, Cambria, Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Lycoming, McKean, Montour, Northampton, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Somerset, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Washington, Wayne, Westmoreland, Wyoming, York.

The window remains open through Sept. 15 for farmers in northern Pennsylvania who suffered crop damages due to frost and freeze to apply for disaster loans.