Aid coming to Georgia farmers pummeled by hurricane

ATLANTA — More than 500 days after Hurricane Michael flattened crops and livelihoods in southwest Georgia, a fresh infusion of emergency aid money is on its way.

Top state officials on Wednesday announced a $347 million grant program aimed at farmers and landowners in 95 South Georgia counties who sustained major losses during the historic storm, which made landfall in October 2018 as a Category 5 behemoth.

Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black said the program will cover crop and equipment losses, as well as damage to timber and pecan orchards that are typically excluded from federal aid programs. Trees sustained generational damage during the storm, costing farmers millions in lost future income. It takes trees years to become fully productive once they’re replanted.

“We thought it was very important to have a program that would answer the challenges for timber, pecans and all of those commodities,” Black said. “They had such extraordinary losses.”

The grants will also cover damage to poultry, beef, dairy, fruit and vegetable crops, as well as some destroyed irrigation systems, farm structures and uninsured equipment.

Farmers can apply for the aid through a new website set up by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, farmrecovery.com, for three weeks beginning on March 18. Black estimated the money will begin flowing this spring.

The money comes from the $19 billion emergency spending package Congress passed in June after nearly a year of partisan brinksmanship over aid for

Puerto Rico.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, led by former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, began releasing $3 billion in relief this fall to farmers reeling from natural disasters across the country. Cotton and peanut farmers have been eligible for that funding, but multiple farmers told the AJC this week that the money has been slow to trickle down to southwest Georgia.