Miami, Florida – Governor Ron DeSantis announced Wednesday the launch of a loan program for farmers affected by the passage of Hurricane Michael, which has a fund of 25 million dollars.
According to a statement from his office, the program aims to help the agricultural producers who suffered the ravages of the meteorological event, which with category five (the maximum) impacted this state in October 2018.
The aid will go mainly to northwest Florida, among others to the counties of Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Okaloosa, Wakulla, Walton and Washington.
DeSantis said that, from the first day, his administration has focused on ensuring that “Floridians in Northwest Florida recover completely from Hurricane Michael,” and that’s why the so-called “Small Business Emergency Loan Program” will provide a “much needed relief” to agricultural producers.
Loans, short-term and without interest, will close the gap between the time from when the losses occurred until a producer obtains other financial resources, “including the payment of crop insurance claims or federal disaster recovery allocations” .
The deadline to apply for these loans, which amounts to more than $ 200,000, is June 30 and applicants must have started their company before October 7, 2018.
A new analysis by the National Hurricane Center (NHC), released last April, showed that Michael reached the coasts of Mexico Beach, on the northwestern corner of Florida, on October 10, with maximum winds of 257 kilometers per hour (160 miles). per hour), which places it as a category 5 hurricane.
The new data increased the power of Michael, who was initially calculated to have touched down with winds of almost 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph), and in that sense he became the first to touch the US coasts with the highest category since did Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
The number of indirect deaths associated with the cyclone rises to 43 in Florida, according to data from the CNH, an entity that belongs to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, in English). (EFEUSA)
