Central Texas counties part of 150 Texas counties deemed primary natural disaster areas
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 150 Texas counties as primary natural disaster areas due to a qualifying drought.
(FOX 44) - The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 150 Texas counties as primary natural disaster areas due to a qualifying drought. The list includes Travis, Williamson, and many other Central Texas counties.
This Secretarial natural disaster designation allows the USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. These loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation or to refinance certain debts.
The FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. The application deadline is November 17, 2023.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, these counties suffered from a drought intensity value during the growing season of a severe drought for eight or more consecutive weeks, and extreme drought or exceptional drought.
The primary counties eligible are:
- Andrews
- Atascosa
- Austin
- Bailey
- Bandera
- Bell
- Bexar
- Blanco
- Borden
- Bosque
- Briscoe
- Brooks
- Brown
- Burnet
- Caldwell
- Callahan
- Carson
- Castro
- Childress
- Clay
- Cochran
- Coke
- Coleman
- Collingsworth
- Colorado
- Comal
- Comanche
- Concho
- Cooke
- Coryell
- Cottle
- Crosby
- Dallam
- Dawson
- Deaf Smith
- Dickens
- Dimmit
- Duval
- Eastland
- Edwards
- Erath
- Falls
- Fayette
- Fisher
- Floyd
- Foard
- Frio
- Gaines
- Garza
- Gillespie
- Glasscock
- Gonzales
- Gray
- Grayson
- Guadalupe
- Hale
- Hall
- Hamilton
- Hansford
- Hardeman
- Hartley
- Haskell
- Hays
- Hemphill
- Hidalgo
- Hill
- Howard
- Hutchinson
- Jim Hogg
- Jim Wells
- Jones
- Kendall
- Kenedy
- Kent
- Kerr
- Kimble
- King
- Kinney
- Kleberg
- Knox
- Lamb
- Lampasas
- Lavaca
- Limestone
- Lipscomb
- Llano
- Lubbock
- Lynn
- McCulloch
- McLennan
- Martin
- Mason
- Maverick
- Medina
- Menard
- Midland
- Milam
- Mills
- Mitchell
- Montague
- Moore
- Motley
- Nolan
- Ochiltree
- Oldham
- Palo Pinto
- Parker
- Parmer
- Potter
- Randall
- Real
- Roberts
- Robertson
- Runnels
- San Saba
- Scurry
- Shackelford
- Sherman
- Starr
- Stephens
- Sterling
- Stonewall
- Swisher
- Taylor
- Terry
- Tom Green
- Travis
- Uvalde
- Val Verde
- Washington
- Webb
- Wheeler
- Wichita
- Wilbarger
- Williamson
- Wilson
- Yoakum
- Zapata
- Zavala
The contiguous counties also eligible are:
- Archer
- Armstrong
- Bastrop
- Baylor
- Brazos
- Burleson
- Cameron
- Collin
- Crockett
- Denton
- DeWitt
- Donley
- Ector
- Ellis
- Fannin
- Fort Bend
- Freestone
- Grimes
- Hockley
- Hood
- Irion
- Jack
- Jackson
- Johnson
- Karnes
- La Salle
- Lee
- Leon
- Live Oak
- McMullen
- Madison
- Navarro
- Nueces
- Reagan
- San Patricio
- Schleicher
- Somervell
- Sutton
- Tarrant
- Terrell
- Throckmorton
- Upton
- Victoria
- Waller
- Wharton
- Willacy
- Winkler
- Wise
- Young
In New Mexico, the contiguous counties are: Curry, Lea, Quay, Roosevelt and Union. In Oklahoma, they are: Beaver, Beckham, Bryan, Cimmaron, Cotton, Ellis, Harmon, Jackson, Jefferson, Love, Marshall, Roger Mills, Texas and Tillman.
For more information, you can view the document below.