‘Not going to be a short turnaround:’ Highland County commissioners declare state of emergency due to ongoing drought

Commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton declared a state of emergency in Highland County due to the ongoing drought during their Wednesday, Sept. 25 meeting and are “requesting all available assistance from state and federal agencies.”

Present for the passage of the resolution declaring a state of emergency were Highland County Emergency Management Agency Director David Bushelman, as well as Hillsboro Public Works Superintendent Shawn Adkins and Auditor Dawson Barreras.

As noted in the resolution, “Highland County has been experiencing prolonged and severe drought conditions, characterized by insufficient rainfall, increased soil dryness and extreme temperatures, leading to significant impacts on agriculture, water resources, public health and safety.”

“We're getting a little bit of rain, but it's nowhere near what we need,” Daniels said. “One of the reasons that we do these kind of things, if there are state funds that become available, that requires us to declare an emergency.

“The USDA has declared Highland County a disaster area, and there are funds available through different USDA programs for crop farmers, for livestock farmers, for people that have got tree and vine programs out there. Also, the Ohio Department of Agriculture has a hay website that producers that are looking for hay for feed — or have hay to sell — can go in there and look and find hay for sale, or they can list their needs.”

According to Daniels and Bushelman, Highland County is now classified as having “exceptional drought,” or D4, which is the most extreme drought on the U.S. Drought Monitor’s classification list.

Bushelman provided a timeline of some of the developments over the past month, including:

• Aug. 26: The United States Department of Agriculture declared Highland County a natural disaster area. According to the USDA, “This Secretarial natural disaster designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend much-needed emergency credit to farm operators in primary counties and contiguous counties through FSA emergency loan assistance.  

“Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation or to refinance certain debts. FSA will review the loans based on the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability. The deadline for producers in designated primary and contiguous counties to apply for loans is April 28, 2025.”

• Sept. 6: Ohio State Fire Marshal Kevin Reardon issued a ban on open burning in Highland and several other counties. The list has since expanded twice to include additional counties.
 
• Sept. 10: The City of Hillsboro issued a Phase II Water Emergency. As discussed Sept. 12 by Safety and Service Director Brianne Abbott, the city was at approximately an 80-day water supply.

Adkins said Wednesday that Hillsboro is now at roughly a 70-day supply.

“Monday, we did open up the valve at Highland County Water, so they are helping us,” Adkins said. “What little bit of rain we got, and what Highland County’s helping with, yesterday we broke even. We didn’t lose any, but we didn’t gain any.”

Bushelman also spoke about some of the action his agency has taken thus far to respond to this emergency.

“Ohio Department of Ag and Ohio Emergency Management have formed a task force,” Bushelman said. “They're meeting every other week. I've been in direct contact with ODA, Soil and Water and Ohio EMA, and then we also are having regional meetings. As a county in our region becomes a D3, we invite them into our regional meetings, just kind of working on stuff at the regional level.

“We’ve been working with fire chiefs, especially if we get a catch a city fire here in Hillsboro. We don't want to deplete all of Hillsboro’s water, so we've got plans made for that.”

As noted in the commissioners’ resolution, “the current drought conditions have elevated the risk of wildfires, grass fires and equipment-related fires, endangering both rural and urban communities, with local fire departments facing increased demands for fire suppression and emergency response.”

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 100 percent of Highland County is classified as being in drought, due to the first eight months of 2024 being the 34th-driest year to date over the past 130 years.

The commissioners’ resolution states that “drought conditions have resulted in substantial economic losses to farmers and livestock producers due to crop failure, reduced yields and depleted water sources, threatening the livelihoods of many Highland County residents.”

The USDM estimates that 126,973 acres of soybeans, 45,642 ares of corn and 17,787 acres of hay in Highland County have been affected by the drought.

“Yields are way down on crops,” Bushelman said. “We've finished cutting our beans, and I'm not sure exactly how it's going to end up, but we may be half of what we normally get, which we're thankful for, because I'm hearing a lot worse. Guys have been feeding hay for at least some of them, for two months now, because there's no pasture, and they're not getting any more hay cuttings.”

The USDM also estimates 15,416 hogs and 11,206 cattle are impacted by the conditions in Highland County.

“I’ve heard of some wells, domestic and wells for livestock, that are drying, that have dried up,” Bushelman said. “Even though it's raining today, and we've gotten a little bit of rain, as far as the crops, it's not going to help them at all. Most of the pastures, they've went dormant.

“It's not going to be a short turnaround.”

“These kind of conditions do have an economic impact on our producers and people in the county,” Daniels added.

After their discussion, commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the resolution declaring the state of emergency.

“The continuation of these conditions will exacerbate the threats to the public health and safety, agriculture, water supply and the overall welfare of Highland County residents, requiring immediate response and mitigation efforts,” the resolution says. “The resources available at the county level, including personnel, equipment and funding, are insufficient to effectively respond to and mitigate the impacts of this ongoing drought, necessitating state and federal assistance.

“Highland County requests all available assistance from state and federal agencies, including but not limited to financial aid, firefighting resources, mental health support services and agricultural relief programs, to help Highland County respond to and recover from the effects of this disaster.

“All public offices and employees of Highland County are hereby directed to exercise the utmost diligence in the discharge of duties required of them for the duration of the emergency and in execution of emergency laws, regulations and directives — state and local.”

For more from Wednesday’s meeting, see the story at: https://highlandcountypress.com/news/highland-county-commissioners-proc… and check back to highlandcountypress.com.

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