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Atlanta (AP) – tens of billions of help for the victims of Hurricane Helene should start sailing this month, US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins promised on Wednesday, but delays already hinder planting crops this yr for some farmers.
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The Congress set a date on March 21 to give away money when he spent a $ 100 billion catastrophe assistance package on December 21. At the top of September, the storm cut the swath with Big Bend in Florida after Eastern Georgia and Upstate of Southern Carolina, before he caused historical floods in Western Northern Carolina and east Tennessee.
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National Information Centers on the Environment claims that Helene has been the seventh path in the United States since 1980, causing an estimated $ 78 billion of damage and 219 deaths.
On Wednesday, at a press conference in Atlanta, Rollins undertook that help would have been paid before the deadline.
“This money will start to move in the next few weeks,” she said.
This will not be too early for Chris Hopkins, who’s grown near Lyons in southern Georgia. Helene destroyed half of the cotton hopkins on 1400 acrach (560 hectares). He said on Tuesday that this month he began to plant 300 acres (121 hectares) of corn and plans to plant cotton at the top of April.
Hopkins said that heavy losses forced him to immerse himself in the emergency reserve funds to pay $ 200,000 in 2024. loans for seeds, fertilizer and other materials. He said that some neighboring farmers hit a storm hard, they still have unpaid debts from last yr, leaving them unable to borrow more to start planting 2025.
“It is desperately needed,” Hopkins said about federal help. (*21*)
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Hopkins said that farmers hoped that the cash would come earlier, in January or February in order that they might pay back creditors before the planting season. He said that some sold equipment and even land to generate enough money to start latest crops.
“The general consensus in the agricultural community and AG is such that it would be much better earlier,” said Hopkins. “AG producers are grateful for that. But taking full 90 days to get it is difficult. “
In southern Carolina, republican legislative leaders decided to wait for the approval of Henena’s help in the regular state budget as an alternative of the failure act, because they expected federal officials to quickly get money from help.
Most, but not all bills from the assistance of the disaster are intended for Helene. This includes $ 21 billion to help farmers, $ 8 billion for the reconstruction of damaged roads and highways, subsidies of $ 12 billion to help communities and natural individuals in recovering and $ 2.2 billion of low-interest loans for firms, non-profit and residential owners.
Officials estimated that Helene caused property and economic damage to the agricultural sector with a complete value of $ 5.5 billion in Georgia and $ 4.9 billion in North Carolina.
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In addition to cotton cultivation, the storm overthrew pecans and flattened chicken houses in Georgia. In agriculture in western North Carolina, they’re dominated by special crops, including Christmas trees and plants of nurseries, with fewer breeders covered by crop insurance.
Officials from southern Carolina estimated $ 620 million damage in agriculture in 2024, not only from Helene, but in addition from other weather disasters.
State governments move to expand their help packages. Georgia has allocated $ 285 million to low -interest loans for farmers and removing wood from private land in the modified budget, which Governor Brian Kemp signed last week, part of $ 862 million for expenses related to Helene.
Legislators from North Carolina negotiate the small print of a further assistance account in Helene, which will be over $ 500 million, partly to provide more funds for crop losses. It could be the fourth help package in North Carolina, which could be adopted. The state turned to nearly $ 1.9 billion because of this of the Act on the assistance of a disaster approved by the Congress in December. Most of this money could be subject to crop and wood losses, removing debris, restoring the stream and erosion.
On Wednesday, the House of Southern Carolina submitted their final consent to the budget, which covers $ 220 million in relation to Helene for farmers and others as a match with the cash of the Federal Government. They also covered $ 50 million to give the state transport department to repay what they spent on road repair and settling trees.
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Bynum was reported by Savannah, Georgia. The writers of Associated Press Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina and Jeffrey Collins in Colombia, Southern Carolina contributed.
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