Enrollment Window Set For Federal Disaster Relief For Farmers After Hurricane Michael

“No one will approach being made whole,” Black said. “But our hope is these resources will help restore a measure of confidence in the marketplace.”

The news comes more than eight months after the federal disaster relief package was signed and more than 16 months after the storm devastated southwest Georgia in late 2018.

It caused more than $2.5 billion worth of losses for the state’s largest industry. Lawmakers have also pointed to that hit as a reason for a recent budget crunch and shortfall in state revenues.

“$347 million is a lot of money. But it’s not when you had $2.5 billion worth of damage,” Black said.

About a month after the storm, the state Legislature convened to release $470 million in tax credits and aid for farmers, but the federal relief took far longer.

“That [state] investment at the beginning stages of rebuilding our devastated communities in Southwest Georgia sent a strong message that we were here for our farmers and our farm families and the people of South and Southwest Georgia,” Kemp said.

“There are families farming today that may not have been able to continue without the leadership shown by our state leaders at this time.”

On the other hand, the delay of the federal relief has left a mark, Black said Wednesday.

“There are farmers that did not farm this year because of the tardy nature of this process. I don’t think we slam the process now because we need to be in a windshield mode, not a rearview mirror.”

“I hope we can take a lesson from the bipartisan nature of the Georgia delegation who’ve worked together for their state,” Black said. “And perhaps with this delay, we can learn a lesson so it won’t ever happen again.”

The relief stalled for months last year amid the government shutdown and a partisan struggle over money for Puerto Rico and border security.

“It should not have taken this long,” Agriculture Secretary and former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said when the bill was signed. “Political games got played, and that’s unfortunate. But it’s all behind us now, and we’re going to execute and deploy this money as soon as possible.”

His cousin, U.S. Sen. David Perdue of Georgia, also expressed his disappointment at the time.

“This is embarrassing, and I apologize representing the United States Senate. This took eight months, and that’s ridiculous,” he said. “The longest disaster relief that we’ve had in the United States was two months and it was Hurricane Sandy in 2013. And this took us eight months. And it wasn’t nothing but partisan politics.”