Contact: Shana Stribling 202.224.0309
Monday, September 23, 2002

WASHINGTON, DC –– U.S. Senator Kit Bond today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has declared fourteen counties in Missouri as primary natural disaster areas and forty-one as contiguous disaster counties (see attached chart).

“I am pleased that Missouri family farms hit hard by Mother Nature will be able to receive federal assistance,” said Bond, the top ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the USDA.

The USDA declared the counties in Missouri as disaster counties in response to the severe spring weather in 2002, which included hail, tornadoes, high winds, flooding and unseasonably cool temperatures. The counties included in the designation all suffered extreme losses in production.

The designation as primary or contiguous counties allows farm operators to be eligible for low-interest emergency loans from the Farm Service Agency (FSA). The FSA will consider each applicant on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. Local FSA offices can provide affected farmers with further information.

Kit Bond served Missouri twice as Governor and now continues his service to Missourians in the United States Senate.

(Chart attached with designated counties)

ATTACHMENT - DECLARATION BY COUNTY

PRIMARY DISASTER AREAS

Adair Bollinger Cape Girardeau Chariton Howard Knox Laclede Lafayette Lincoln Macon Madison Moniteau Scott Wayne

CONTIGUOUS DISASTER COUNTIES

Boone Butler Camden Carroll Carter Clark Cole Cooper Dallas Iron Jackson Johnson Lewis Linn Livingston Miller Mississippi Monroe Montgomery Morgan New Madrid Perry Pettis Pike Pulaski Putnam Randolph Ray Reynolds Saline Schuyler Scotland Shelby St. Charles St. Francois Stoddard Sullivan Texas Warren Webster Wright