Wisconsin’s Governor Tours Drought Areas; Pledges Help

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Governor Walker toured drought-damaged areas in southern Wisconsin today, pledging to help find assistance for farmers hurt by the extended dry spell. The governor made stops in Burlington and Dodgeville where he surveyed crop damage in fields. “Neither of which had ears of corn,” he said. “And even at the last one [farm], he had a storm come through, which was nice, except the wind blew down the little bit of corn he had left, making it all but impossible to harvest that for feed and so there’s all sorts of challenges out there.”

Earlier this week Walker expanded Wisconsin’s drought emergency declaration to all 72 counties. Yesterday the governor sent a letter to the federal government asking for 23 counties to have access to low interest loans. The administration is now considering allowing farmers access to public land, and helping farmers find feed for livestock, either in the U.S. or in Canada. Also today, Walker confirmed the number of deaths related to heat has increased to 10. The state says there are another 12 deaths that might be heat-related, but that has not been confirmed yet.

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