{"id":18031,"date":"2014-01-17T10:31:47","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T16:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=18031"},"modified":"2014-01-17T10:35:38","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T16:35:38","slug":"20-oklahoma-counties-designated-natural-disaster-areas-because-of-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/01\/17\/20-oklahoma-counties-designated-natural-disaster-areas-because-of-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"20 Oklahoma Counties Designated Natural Disaster Areas Because of Drought"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_18037\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The latest update of the U.S. Drought Monitor as of Jan. 14, 2014. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/01\/DroughtMon1-14.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18037\" alt=\"The latest update of the U.S. Drought Monitor as of Jan. 14, 2014. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/01\/DroughtMon1-14-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">U.S. Drought Monitor<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The latest update of the U.S. Drought Monitor as of Jan. 14, 2014.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Oklahoma got a reminder this week that \u2014 despite a wet year for many parts of the state \u2014 drought continues to rage in other areas, mainly the south and southwest.<\/p><p>On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture <a title=\"USDAlink\" href=\"http:\/\/www.fsa.usda.gov\/FSA\/newsReleases?area=newsroom&subject=landing&topic=edn&newstype=ednewsrel&type=detail&item=ed_20140115_rel_0010.html\" target=\"_blank\">designated counties<\/a> in 11 states as primary natural disaster areas because of the drought, including 20 counties in Oklahoma.<\/p><p>&#8220;Our hearts go out to those Oklahoma farmers and ranchers affected by recent natural disasters,&#8221; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says in a press release.<\/p><p><a title=\"StateImpactLink\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/12\/12\/a-wet-year-doesnt-mean-oklahoma-is-safe-from-drought-in-2014\/\" target=\"_blank\">StateImpact spoke<\/a> with Associate State Climatologist Gary McManus in December, who warned about getting too excited over drought improvement in 2013:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>McManus says the drought might still be in its early states, and recent wet weather an aberration.<\/p><p>&#8220;Even during the dust bowl drought there was a year in there where it was extremely wet \u2026 &#8221; McManus says. &#8220;So that&#8217;s how these longer term droughts work. They see periods of intensification intermixed with periods of relief. And some unlucky folks, like western Oklahoma, they just get it straight through.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote><p><!--more-->Oklahoma counties included in the designation are: Beaver, Beckham, Cimarron, Comanche, Tillman, Cotton, Custer, Ellis, Greer, Washita, Harmon, Harper, Jackson, Jefferson, Woods, Kiowa, Roger Mills, Stephens, Texas, and Woodward.<\/p><p>Farmers in ranchers in those, and contiguous counties may be eligible for low-interest emergency loans through the federal government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated counties in 11 states as primary natural disaster areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":18037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[219,423,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18031"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18045,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18031\/revisions\/18045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}