Federal assistance is available, Hoeven tells N.D. farmers hit by early fall blizzard

U.S. Sen. John Hoeven on Monday outlined federal disaster assistance coverage for North Dakota agricultural producers whose crops got walloped over the weekend by a massive early October blizzard.

“Extremely wet conditions this fall and the early blizzard have only compounded the challenges facing our producers,” said Sen. Hoeven, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum on Oct. 11 activated the state’s emergency operations plan for different parts of the state in response to a major winter storm that dumped historic snowfall over the weekend, totaling more than two feet in several areas.

Such crop losses caused by natural disasters this year and in 2018 are covered in federal disaster relief legislation that Sen. Hoeven helped secure in May. The legislation includes more than $3 billion for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to cover such crop losses and to provide coverage for losses due to excessive moisture and snowfall under the Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+).

“We worked to ensure that the disaster assistance legislation passed by Congress earlier this year provides coverage for producers impacted by blizzards,” said the senator, adding that he’s already spoken with USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Censky “to outline these challenges and the need to assist our producers.”

“We continue working with USDA to provide producers with much-needed assistance under the disaster supplemental we approved earlier this year,” Sen. Hoeven said.

Counties with a presidential or secretarial disaster declaration are automatically eligible for WHIP+, according to Sen. Hoeven’s office, which noted that producers who are not in counties with a declared disaster also could be eligible, but must have documentation establishing that crops were directly impacted by a qualifying disaster event.

Sen. Hoeven also spoke with North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring and Farm Service Agency State Executive Director Brad Thykeson about assisting the state’s producers.