Congressman Mike Pence

NOTE: The below counties have been updated to reflect the USDA's corrected release sent out on July 19

Washington, DC – U.S. Congressman Mike Pence applauded the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) announcement that it is designating 14 additional counties in Indiana as primary disaster areas due to drought conditions.

"Crops are suffering due to the drought across Indiana and so are our farmers," said Pence. "I wholeheartedly support efforts to speed much-needed assistance to the heartland and will continue to work to marshal resources to help farmers across Indiana."


Background from the USDA:

The following counties were designated as primary disaster counties today, July 18, 2012: Bartholomew, Brown, Clay, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Monroe, Morgan, Owen, Parke, Putnam and Shelby. Benefits are also available for the contiguous counties of Boone, Decatur, Fountain, Henry, Jennings, Montgomery, Rush, and Vermillion.

The USDA encourages all farmers and ranchers to contact their crop insurance companies and local USDA Farm Service Agency Service Centers, as applicable, to report damages to crops or livestock loss. More information about federal crop insurance may be found at www.rma.usda.gov. Farm operators in both primary and contiguous counties are eligible to be considered for Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loans. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of a Secretarial disaster declaration to apply for emergency loan assistance. FSA will consider each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses, security available, and repayment ability.

In total, the following counties across Indiana have been declared disaster areas by the federal government in the past week: Adams, Allen, Bartholomew, Blackford, Boone, Brown, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Daviess, Decatur, DeKalb, Delaware, Dubois, Elkhart, Fountain, Fulton, Gibson, Grant, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Harrison, Hendricks, Henry, Howard, Huntington, Jackson, Jasper, Jay, Jennings, Johnson, Knox, Kosciusko, Lagrange, La Porte, Lawrence, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Martin, Miami, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Noble, Orange, Owen, Parke, Perry, Pike, Posey, Pulaski, Putnam, Rush, Shelby, Starke, St. Joseph, Spencer, Steuben, Sullivan, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Vanderburgh, Vermillion, Vigo, Wabash, Warrick, Washington, Wells, White, and Whitley.

###