USDA Makes Indemnity Payments to Producers Impacted by Hurricane Helene
October 18, 2024 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced additional assistance from USDA to help producers impacted by Hurricane Helene in the recovery process.
USDA has identified the counties that have triggered for payment under the Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index (HIP-WI) endorsement for Hurricane Helene. As a result, Approved Insurance Providers (AIP) have 30 days to issue payments to producers, but AIPs typically issue payments much sooner.
USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) first offered HIP-WI for the 2020 hurricane season, and last year, the endorsement was expanded to include the Tropical Storm Option (TS). Under HIP-WI and TS, producers with the endorsement will receive over $233 million in indemnities for hurricane-related losses from Hurricane Helene. These payments will directly help farmers and rural communities recover.
“Several states across the Southeast experienced devastating damages from Hurricane Helene, which caused significant destruction right before the fall harvest season,” says Secretary Vilsack. “The Biden-Harris Administration and USDA will support farmers through the recovery process for the long haul, and this includes making innovative types of coverage available and getting funds into the hands of producers quickly.”
Currently, Hurricane Helene estimated indemnities for both HIP-WI and TS by state include:
Alabama: $5.0 million
Florida: $12.8 million
Georgia: $207.7 million
North Carolina: $4.1 million
South Carolina: $4.1 million
Virginia: $61,000
These payments are in addition to the estimated $58 million paid for Hurricane Beryl, the $214 million paid for Hurricane Debby, and the $128 million paid for Hurricane Francine, which hit Gulf Coast and Southeastern states in July, August, and September respectively. In total, over $630 million in payments have been issued under HIP-WI and TS in 2024.
USDA continues to look at every avenue possible to accelerate assistance and get resources to the people that need them most. This includes by putting into place contingency plans and program flexibilities to support farmers, foresters and rural communities. A full list of FSA disaster assistance programs is available on the Hurricane webpage on farmers.gov.
USDA has 215 responders engaged in immediate response and recovery efforts, with incident management teams deployed in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia, conducting work such as clearing trees and debris. These teams also provide key support to FEMA’s national response efforts, including daily assessments and logistical coordination from Washington DC. Within USDA, internal staff is also being adjusted to support producers in hurricane stricken states and provide FSA jump teams.
Emergency Procedures
Due to the catastrophic damage that Hurricane Helene caused in the Southeast as well as the continuing impacts from Hurricane Debby, RMA authorized emergency procedures to help producers with hurricane-related losses.
RMA is working with crop insurance companies to streamline and accelerate the adjustment of losses and issuance of indemnity payments to crop insurance policyholders in impacted areas.
Emergency procedures will help streamline paperwork and reduce the number of required representative samples when damage is consistent. These flexibilities will reduce burdens on both insurance companies and producers.
RMA’s emergency procedure flexibilities apply to all counties in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia impacted by Hurricane Helene or Hurricane Debby.
Additional information on these emergency procedures is available on RMA’s Hurricanes Helene and Debby webpage.
More Information
Producers do not need to file a claim to receive an indemnity payment under HIP-WI. If a county is triggered, the AIP will issue an indemnity payment in the coming weeks. Triggered counties were identified by RMA in Product Management Bulletin 24-067 and will also be available in the county’s actuarial documents. Eligible producers will receive a HIP-WI indemnity payment in addition to any applicable indemnity payments due to them through their underlying crop insurance policy. AIPs are using the standard notice of loss and claims process to timely process those underlying crop insurance policy claims.
HIP-WI covers a portion of the deductible of the underlying crop insurance policy when the county, or an adjacent one, is hit with sustained hurricane-force winds from a named hurricane based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
TS covers named tropical storms, as reported by NOAA, with maximum sustained winds exceeding 34 knots and precipitation of at least six inches over a four-day period. Both the wind trigger and precipitation trigger must occur for an indemnity to be paid.
The HIP-WI endorsement, including the Tropical Storm Option, are available in select counties in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.
To find additional information about the policy, including frequently asked questions, videos, and a fact sheet, please visit the HIP-WI website.
Information from USDA
GET THE NEWSLETTER TODAY!
