By Jane Winik Sartwell
Thanks to widespread rainfall across the state, the number of North Carolina counties in severe drought this week fell from 26 to just five.
Last week, two counties — Yadkin and Columbus — were in an extreme drought. Both have been demoted this week to severe. Even so, the federal government has issued a natural disaster declaration in Columbus County.
“We’ve now started having spotty rains (in Columbus County), but the damage has already been done,” state executive director of the Farm Service agency Bob Etheridge told Carolina Public Press.
“The benefits that flow from the declaration are in the pipeline. Emergency loans for farmers are becoming available. And in the cases of animals like cattle, those farmers are eligible for funds to help them offset costs of things like lost hay.”
Counties contiguous with Columbus — Bladen, Brunswick, Pender, and Robeson — fall under the same declaration, so farmers in those counties have access to the emergency loans as well.
For now, emergency loans are the only kind of assistance available, but the Farm Service Agency is working on potential future programs and other kinds of aid.
From drought to damp
It has been a summer of extremes across much of North Carolina.
Williamston, the county seat of Martin County in the Coastal Plains, experienced its second-driest June on record. Now, it is setting the pace for its second-wettest July on record, with 9.06 inches of rain so far this month.
“Things are improving almost as quickly as they degraded,” Klaus Albertin, chair of the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council, told CPP.
“Some stations … have had their top five wettest 30 days on record. It’s very hard for a lot of systems to adjust to that kind of switch from super-dry to super-wet.”
“These sharp, quick changes from dry to wet are happening more often now,” Corey Davis, drought expert at the North Carolina State Climate Office told CPP. Davis is concerned that, by the end of the year, the most severe drought in recorded North Carolina history will look like just a blip on the radar.
“But it’s too late for our corn crop here,” said Cash, voicing a sentiment that rings true across much of the state. However, he thinks the yields for both tobacco and peanuts will be rescued by recent rain.
Dry conditions continue to plague some areas, however, such as Yadkin County in the northwestern Piedmont, which as of last week, was experiencing extreme drought alongside Columbus County.
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