NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 29 Louisiana parishes and 10 counties in Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas, as drought disaster areas. That makes farmers and ranchers eligible for low-interest emergency loans from the Farm Service Agency, if they can prove sufficient losses to drought.
Thirteen Louisiana parishes are primary disaster areas; the other 16 parishes and 10 counties are adjacent to them. Two other Mississippi counties are eligible for disaster aid because they're adjacent to some of the dozens of Tennessee counties also declared disaster areas Friday.
The parishes declared primary disaster areas are Concordia, East Carroll, Grant, LaSalle, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Ouachita, Rapides, Sabine, Vernon, West Carroll and Winn.
Adjacent Louisiana parishes are Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Caldwell, Catahoula, De Soto, Evangeline, Lincoln, Madison, Pointe Coupee, Red River, Richland, Tensas, Union, and West Feliciana.
Mississippi counties affected by Louisiana's declaration are Adams, Issaquena, Warren and Wilkinson. Those adjacent to Tennessee drought disaster counties are Alcorn and Tishomingo.
The declaration in Louisiana also affects Ashley, Chicot and Union counties in Arkansas and Newton, Sabine and Shelby counties in Texas.
