By JEFF AMY and RUSS BYNUM Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — Tens of billions in aid for victims of Hurricane Helene should start flowing later this month, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins pledged Wednesday, but delays are already making it hard this year for some farmers to plant crops.
Congress set a deadline of March 21 to hand out the money when it passed a $100 billion disaster relief package on Dec. 21. The late September storm cut a swath from Florida’s Big Bend across eastern Georgia and upstate South Carolina before causing historic flooding in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
The National Centers for Environmental Information says Helene is the seventh-most expensive disaster in the United States since 1980, causing an estimated $78 billion in damage and 219 deaths.
At a news conference in Atlanta on Wednesday, Rollins pledged the aid would begin to be disbursed before the deadline.
“That money will begin to move in the next few weeks,” she said.
That’s not a moment too soon for Chris Hopkins, who farms near Lyons in south Georgia. Helene wiped out half the cotton Hopkins was growing on 1,400 acres (560 hectares). He said Tuesday that he began planting 300 acres (121 hectares) of corn this month, and plans to start planting cotton in late April.
Hopkins said the big losses forced him to dip into emergency reserve funds to pay off $200,000 in 2024 loans for seed, fertilizer and other materials. Some neighboring farmers hit hard by the storm still have unpaid debts from last year, he said, leaving them unable to borrow more to start planting 2025 crops.
“It’s desperately needed,” Hopkins said of federal aid. “What we’re seeing is that producers are almost in a holding or pause pattern because they can’t afford to pay their rent or their loans.”
Hopkins said farmers had hoped the money would come sooner, in January or February, so they could pay off creditors before planting season. He said some have sold equipment or even land to generate enough cash to get new crops started.
“The general consensus in the farming and ag community is that it would have been much better earlier,” Hopkins said. “Ag producers are thankful for it by all means. But taking the full 90 days to get it is tough.”
In South Carolina, Republican legislative leaders decided to wait to approve Helene damage relief money in the state’s regular budget instead of an emergency bill in part because they expected federal officials to get relief money out quickly.
Most but not all of the disaster relief bill is earmarked for Helene. It includes $21 billion to help farmers, $8 billion to rebuild damaged roads and highways, $12 billion in grants to help communities and individuals recover and $2.2 billion in low-interest loans for businesses, nonprofits and homeowners.
Officials have estimated that Helene caused property and economic damage to the agriculture sector totaling $5.5 billion in Georgia and $4.9 billion in North Carolina.
Beyond the cotton crop, the storm toppled pecan trees and flattened chicken houses in Georgia. Farming in western North Carolina is dominated by specialty crops including Christmas trees and nursery plants, with fewer growers covered by crop insurance.
South Carolina officials estimated $620 million in agriculture damage in 2024, not just from Helene, but also from other weather disasters.
State governments have been moving to expand their aid packages. Georgia has earmarked $285 million for low-interest loans for farmers and removing downed timber from private land in an amended budget that Gov. Brian Kemp signed last week, part of $862 million in Helene-related spending.
North Carolina lawmakers are negotiating the details of a supplemental Helene relief bill that may total more than $500 million, in part to provide more funds for crop losses. It would be North Carolina’s fourth Helene aid package to be enacted. The state has requested close to $1.9 billion from the disaster relief law approved by Congress in December. Most of that money would go to address crop and timber losses, debris removal, stream restoration and erosion.
The South Carolina House on Wednesday gave final approval to a budget that includes $220 million in Helene relief for farmers and others as a match to money from the federal government. They also set aside $50 million to give to the state Department of Transportation to pay back what they spent repairing roads and clearing trees.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press writers Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina contributed.