SANTA CRUZ — Federal lawmakers representing four California districts with pristine farmland penned a letter to colleagues this week urging passage of a bipartisan disaster recovery package for farmers and ranchers devastated by heavy winter storms earlier this winter.
“For nearly three weeks, California was hit with storms that brought intense rain and catastrophic flooding. The historic storms caused tremendous damage to thousands of acres of farms and ranches,” wrote Reps. Jimmy Panetta, Salud Carbajal, Zoe Lofgren and Jim Costa.
Panetta and Lofgren represent portions of South County heavily reliant on the agriculture industry, while Panetta’s 19th District extends to most of North County as well.
“We, therefore, request a disaster recovery package be swiftly put together to allow the rebuilding and recovery process to begin. It is imperative Congress provide much-needed aid to California’s agricultural community to allow for a full and timely recovery,” they wrote.
The letter requests aid for areas impacted during a storm window ranging from Dec. 27 of last year to Jan 16. According to a release from Panetta’s office, California was hit with nine atmospheric river storms during that period, dumping roughly 32 trillion gallons of water on the state and causing more than $500 million in estimated damages to agricultural operations in the lawmaker’s regions.
Farmland in Santa Cruz County endured about $26 million in damage during the December to January storm period and an additional $21 million during February and March, according to county spokesperson Jason Hoppin. Hoppin added that these are likely conservative estimates as “they don’t fully reflect mitigation measures by growers” such as soil reconditioning and water pumping.
“While some fields had not yet been planted, saving them from losing an entire crop, that was not the case for many,” wrote the lawmakers. “Fields flooded, lost precious topsoil, are covered in debris or were entirely washed away. Many growers will not have their fields ready to go for the traditional planting season and will need to push their timeline.”
The federal Farm Service Agency has received more than 900 filings for assistance within six California counties with significant farmland including 65 from Santa Cruz and 300 from Monterey.
These figures do not include subsequent storms from late February and March that created a breach in the Pajaro River levee where about 2,250 acres of nearby strawberry fields were impacted and 2,000 residents evacuated from the town of Pajaro.
According to the letter, the representatives have called for farmworker housing to be fully restored and that they receive necessary unemployment benefits, among other things.
