For Georgia farmers and timber owners’ devastated by Hurricane Helene, the long wait for more federal aid to trim their storm losses could soon be over. But a government shutdown could slow the money’s arrival to producers.
Georgia will receive more than $531 million in federal funding to help producers rebound from the hurricane, the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday.
The money will come to Georgia as a block grant, which state officials can distribute to individual, affected farms. The funding will cover future losses and infrastructure damage costs, and unlike with some other federal assistance programs, timberland owners are eligible for the aid.
The announcement comes a little more than a year after Helene passed through Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas and Tennessee, leaving historic damage in its wake.
Helene was likely the most destructive hurricane in Georgia history, causing an estimated $5.5 billion in direct and indirect losses to the state’s agriculture and forestry industries. An estimated 250 lives were lost in the storm and its aftermath nationwide, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And the nearly $79 billion in total damage it triggered across the Southeast made it the U.S.’s seventh-costliest tropical storm on record.
In the year since the storm, some producers have tapped into existing USDA programs, plus roughly $300 million provided by the state to help them clean up and stay afloat. But the federal block grant is expected to provide the most significant boost yet to Georgia’s agriculture and timber sectors, which have been pinched by trade wars and rising costs, on top of storm losses.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said the money will “provide much-needed relief” and thanked his federal counterpart, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, for the support.
“This funding is absolutely essential to help our farm families bounce back from Hurricane Helene, and our team invested hundreds of hours into the negotiation process to secure the maximum possible amount of federal funding for our state and our producers,” Harper said in a statement.
Gov. Brian Kemp called the announcement, “Great news for Georgia’s farming families and our No. 1 industry!” and praised Harper and the GDA’s work to secure the funds.
“This will cover as many Georgia farmers as possible, and I’m thankful for their tireless efforts as we continue to support hard-hit communities still recovering from Helene,” Kemp added in a statement.
Rollins in a statement said the funding shows “President Trump has our farmers’ backs and will ensure they have the resources they need to continue to produce the safest, most reliable, and most abundant food supply in the world.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
The funding Georgia will receive comes from a $21 billion pot of disaster aid passed last year by Congress in the last weeks of the Biden administration. Georgia’s Democratic U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock cast key votes to pass the aid package that was part of a larger, government spending bill. The senators have also pushed Trump administration officials to deliver the money to Georgia growers quickly.
Taylor Sills, the executive director of the Georgia Cotton Commission, thanked their federal and state partners for their work on the funding.
“The Georgia (block) grant proposal was very robust and it took a lot of groundwork to get to this point,” Sills said.
The USDA and state agriculture department said they are still working on the final details of the block grant agreement. Once those are ironed out, the agencies said they will provide the information affected producers need to apply for funding.
But with congressional leadership failing to agree on legislation to continue funding the federal government, a potential shutdown could slow the flow of money to Georgia farms.
On Monday, Harper also sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) warning a shutdown would disrupt disaster aid payments and state block grant funding.
The letter, which criticizes Senate Democrats for partisan “politicking,” was signed by eight other state agriculture leaders. All but one is a Republican.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
