(a) Abbreviations. The following abbreviations apply to this part.

CEB means the County Emergency Board.

CED means the County Executive Director.

DAFP means the Deputy Administrator for Farm Programs of the Farm Service Agency.

EM means Emergency loan administered under 7 CFR part 764.

FSA means the Farm Service Agency.

LAR means the Loss Assessment Report.

SEB means the State Emergency Board.

SED means the State Executive Director.

USDA means the United States Department of Agriculture.

(b) Definitions. The following definitions apply to this part.

Administrator means the Administrator of FSA.

Contiguous county is used in reference to a primary county as defined in this section. A contiguous county is any county whose boundary touches at any point with that of the primary county. For programs other than the EM Program, disaster assistance regulations will specify whether benefits will be available only in the primary counties or also in the contiguous counties. For the EM Program that issue is addressed in §759.6, unless specified otherwise in the disaster assistance regulations for other programs or in §759.6 for the EM Program, only the “primary” county will be considered the qualifying “disaster county.” Therefore, if the disaster assistance regulations specify that they cover the disaster area and contiguous counties, then the only eligible counties would be the primary county and those contiguous to that county. Coverage would not include coverage of those counties that are in turn contiguous to those counties that are contiguous to the primary county.

County is used when referring to a geographical area, a local administrative subdivision of a State or a similar political subdivision of the United States generally considered to be in county usage, for example, it includes an area referred to as a “county” or “parish.” Except where otherwise specified, the use of the term county or similar political subdivision is for administrative purposes only.

CEB is comprised of the representatives of several USDA agencies that have responsibilities for reporting the occurrence of, and assessing the damage caused by, a natural disaster, and for requesting approval in declaring a county a disaster area.

CED is the person in charge of administering the local FSA county office for a particular county.

Disaster area is the county or counties declared or designated as a disaster area as a result of natural disaster related losses. The disaster area only includes the primary counties, but benefits may be available in the counties contiguous to the primary county if so provided by the disaster assistance regulations or, in the case of the EM Program, in §759.6.

LAR is a loss assessment report prepared by the CEB relating to the State and county where the potential disaster occurred and for which county or counties the CEB is responsible. The LAR includes as applicable, but is not limited to, starting and ending dates of the disaster, crop year affected, type of disaster incident, area of county affected by disaster; total number of farms affected, crop loss or pasture loss data associated with the applicable disaster (or both types of losses), livestock destroyed, and other property losses.

Natural disaster is a disaster in which unusual and adverse weather conditions or other natural phenomena have substantially affected farmers by causing severe physical losses, severe production losses, or both.

Primary county is a county determined to be a disaster area.

Presidential declaration is a declaration of a disaster by the President under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121-2) requiring Federal emergency assistance to supplement State and local efforts to save lives and protect property, public health and safety, or to avert or lessen the threat of a disaster.

Production losses (severe) within a county are those in which there has been a reduction county-wide of at least a 30 percent or more loss of production of at least one crop in the county.

SEB means the State Emergency Board which is comprised of the representatives of several USDA agencies having emergency program responsibilities at the State level. The board is required to respond to emergencies and carry out the Secretary's emergency preparedness responsibilities.

SED is the person who serves as the Chairperson of the USDA SEB in each State, is responsible for providing the leadership and coordination for all USDA emergency programs at the State level, and is subject to the supervision of DAFP.

Severe physical losses means, for the purpose of determining an Administrator's declaration of physical loss, losses that consist of severe damage to, or destruction of: Physical farm property including farmland (except sheet erosion); structures on the land including, but not limited to, building, fences, dams; machinery, equipment, supplies, and tools; livestock, livestock products, poultry and poultry products; harvested crops and stored crops.

Substantially affected when used to refer to producers and to the relationship of a particular producer to a particular disaster means a producer who has sustained qualifying physical or production losses, as defined in this section, as a result of the natural disaster.

U.S. Drought Monitor is a system for classifying drought severity according to a range of abnormally dry to exceptional drought. It is a collaborative effort between Federal and academic partners that is produced on a weekly basis to synthesize multiple indices, outlooks, and drought impacts on a map and in narrative form. This synthesis of indices is reported by the National Drought Mitigation Center.

United States means each of the several States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Extension of disaster assistance, following a disaster designation, to insular areas of the United States not covered by this definition of “United States” will be only as authorized by law, and as determined by the Administrator on behalf of the Secretary to be appropriate.