The United States Department of Agriculture has declared 16 Iowa counties disaster areas. Governor Vilsack asked the U-S-D-A to designate the counties disaster areas due to dry conditions. The U-S-D-A says the production losses are significant enough to warrant the disaster designation for Cedar, Clinton, Davis, Des Moines, Henry, Iowa, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Keokuk, Lee, Louisa, Muscatine, Scott, Van Buren and Washington. The declaration automatically qualifies 10 contiguous counties eligible for aid. They are Appanoose, Benton, Dubuque, Jones, Linn, Monroe, Mahaska, Poweshiek, Tama, and Wapello. People in the affected counties can now request low interest loans from the Farm Service Agency to help them with the damage they’ve suffered.