Disaster Analysis 2026

NASS can now monitor agricultural disasters in near real-time and provide quantitative assessments using remotely sensed data and geospatial techniques. This page provides disaster assessments in geospatial data format, reports, and metadata as available. A flood monitoring methodology paper is located here. Flood detection and the estimation of impacted crop acres were conducted using an updated GEE web app RAPID V2.0 Beta (Real-time Assessment and Prompt Inundation Detection).

Hurricane Isaias – October 2026

Hurricane Isaias, a late-season storm in October 2026, made landfall on the northern Gulf Coast as a Category 2 system. In the Gulf region—particularly the Florida Panhandle, southern Alabama, and southwest Georgia, Hurricane Isaias brought heavy rains and winds—endangering unharvested cotton and other row crops across the Southeast. The United States Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) produced an assessment on the extent of potential damage to agricultural land and activities from this event. A disaster assessment was conducted using available wind swath data compared to the 2025 Cropland Data Layer (CDL) to estimate crops potentially affected by the hurricane-force winds. Additional Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and cloud-free Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8/9 imagery coverage were assessed but did not find significant flooding impacts to cropland.


Files available for download: Event Report (PDF) | Event Report (PPTX)



Photo of Hurricane Isaias – October 2026
Illinois and Indiana Flooding - August 2026

A prolonged wet period has affected areas of Illinois and Indiana in mid-August 2026. In Indiana, the event began with a derecho and heavy rainfall on August 11, 2026, followed by successive rounds of storms and floods, ending on August 17, 2026. Approximately 300,000 customers lost power. In Illinois, multiple rounds of thunderstorms produced significant flash flooding from August 13-16, 2026. The United States Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) produced an assessment on the extent of potential damage to agricultural land and activities from this event. A disaster assessment was conducted using available Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and cloud-free Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8/9 imagery coverage to identify likely inundated areas by the flooding event in early August 2026. Inundated areas were then compared to the 2025 Cropland Data Layer (CDL) to estimate crops potentially affected by the floods.


Files available for download: Synopsis | Event Report (PDF) | Event Report (PPTX)



Map of Illinois and Indiana Flooding - August 2026
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Last Modified: 10/27/2026