LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Asa Hutchinson is asking federal agriculture officials for a disaster declaration for 12 northeast Arkansas counties that he says suffered millions of dollars in crop damages from recent flooding.
Hutchinson on Thursday released a letter he sent recently to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack requesting a disaster declaration in terms of crop losses for Carroll, Clay, Craighead, Independence, Jackson, Lawrence, Lincoln, Madison, Prairie, Randolph, White and Woodruff counties. Hutchinson said the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture estimated the crop losses in the area at between $45.6 million and $50 million.
In his Sept. 16 letter to Vilsack, Hutchinson said many crops were in or near the harvest stage when they were submerged by 8 to 12 inches of rain that fell during a four-week period in the region.