Yesterday, USDA-RMA published a preliminary list of counties that triggered payments for the Hurricane Insurance Protection-Wind Index (HIP-WI) endorsement due to Hurricane Helene. Soon after that, we received calls from concerned producers, crop insurance agents, and others invested in the cotton industry regarding certain counties that had not triggered a payment. Commission staff reached out to the folks at RMA, who provided the following guidance regarding the preliminary list:
“The National Center for Environmental Information located in Asheville, NC was severely impacted by Hurricane Helene with no timetable for operational capability. This center maintains the IBTrACS, which is the data normally used for hurricane payments. In accordance with the provisions in the HIP-WI policy and the interest of issuing payments to producers as quickly as possible, RMA used data from the National Hurricane Center to publish the initial triggers for Hurricane Helene. Once the IBTrACS data becomes available, RMA will analyze the data and publish any additional triggers. Please keep in mind that this does not impact the underlying policy and additional payments could be made on those as claims are completed.”
We appreciate the open communication and transparency of the senior staff at RMA. We furthermore appreciate their efforts to get payments to as many affected producers as they can as quickly as possible. Remember, that while they will be analyzing more data as it comes in, there is no guarantee that a county will be added to the list.