News Releases for October 2003
October 24, 2003
For further information, please Contact the Governor's Office
Hoeven Calls For Secretarial Disaster Declaration
Disaster Letter to Anne Veneman, Secretary of Agriculture 
(128 kb pdf)
BISMARCK, N.D. - Gov. John Hoeven has sent a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman requesting a Secretarial Disaster Declaration for 47 North Dakota counties. The Governor made the request due to disaster conditions including drought, severe temperatures, storms, flooding, wind, ground saturation, tornadoes and high humidity that have occurred since April, 2003.
Damage Assessment Reports compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency indicate the following counties meet the criteria for a Secretarial Disaster Declaration: Adams, Barnes Billings, Bottineau, Bowman, Burke Burleigh, Cass, Cavalier, Dickey, Divide, Dunn, Emmons, Golden Valley, Grand Forks, Grant, Griggs, Hettinger, Kidder, LaMoure, Logan, McHenry, McIntosh, McKenzie, McLean, Mercer, Morton, Mountrail, Oliver, Pierce, Ramsey, Ransom, Renville, Rolette, Sargent, Sheridan, Steele, Sioux, Slope, Stark, Stutsman, Towner, Trail, Walsh, Ward, Wells and Williams.
"While much of our state had a good harvest overall, most counties had one or more crops that were impacted by unfavorable growing conditions," said Hoeven. "We are asking Secretary Veneman to make this declaration to help the farmers who have struggled with those losses."
In order to receive a USDA disaster designation, counties must have a 30 percent or greater crop loss, or at least one farmer in the county must have been denied commercial credit. Of the counties included in the request, 43 have met both criteria, with the four remaining counties qualifying due to significant crop loss.
The North Dakota USDA State Emergency Board certified the Damage Assessment Reports that each county board submitted, and recommended which counties could qualify for the secretarial designation.
A Secretarial Disaster Declaration would help farmers and agriculture-related businesses with low interest emergency loan and debt restructuring programs, and provide some abilities to average income for disaster prompted livestock sales.
E-mail comments to the Governor
Documents with this icon are in Adobe Acrobat format and require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to open them. It can be be downloaded directly from the Adobe.com web site.
