U.S. Declares Drought Disaster in New Jersey, Parts of New York

The Clinton administration on Tuesday designated all of New Jersey and 34 counties in New York as farm disaster areas in response to the drought that is plaguing growers in those states.

“The farm crisis continues to present a daunting challenge to America’s farmers, now being hit hard by a severe drought in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast,” President Clinton said in a statement. “We are responding to this drought with urgency and immediate assistance.”

Stifling heat and a lack of rainfall are troubling farmers from Ohio to Maine.

Crops have withered in the fields, with corn stalks reaching half their height, while animals have been stressed by the heat and lack of forage. For many states, this is the third year of drought.

Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island are parched by the worst drought on record, officials said last week. Meanwhile, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and West Virginia had the second-lowest rainfall from April to July since the government started collecting data 105 years ago.

Tuesday’s emergency declaration is the administration’s second this month. Last week, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman declared all of West Virginia and 33 counties surrounding the state as farm emergency areas.

In Pennsylvania, officials said a variety of crops are damaged.

“We’re probably looking in the neighborhood of 60% [losses] overall,” said April Hutcheson, a spokeswoman for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. “Local USDA officials already have said we should have a disaster declaration, so now we’re just waiting along with everybody else.”

Other states have also requested emergency declarations, including Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Montana, Ohio, Arizona and New Mexico.