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Five Lakeway Area counties were declared disaster counties by the U.S. Department of Agriculture due to drought and heat damages. The counties are eligible for emergency loans.

Grainger and Hamblen counties were declared a primary disaster county due to drought and heat using the Secretarial Disaster Designation process.

Claiborne, Hancock, Hawkins and Union counties were declared contiguous disaster counties due to drought and heat using the Secretarial Disaster Designation process.

Under this designation, those having operations in any primary or contiguous county are eligible to apply for low-interest emergency loans.

Emergency loans help eligible qualifiers recover from production and physical losses due to drought, flooding and other natural disasters or quarantine.

Those affected have eight months from the date of the declaration to apply for emergency loan assistance. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. Participants can borrow up to 100% of actual production or physical losses, to a maximum amount of $500,000.

Applications for assistance in the disaster-stricken counties will be accepted by the Farm Service Agency through October 2.

For more information about emergency loans, contact Farm Loan Manager Greg Brooks, at the Hawkins/Hancock County USDA Service Center located at 1401 East Main Street in Rogersville, by phone at 423-272-0217 or visit fsa.usda.gov.

In accordance with Federal civil rights law and USDA civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). Remedies and complaint filing deadlines vary by program or incident.