CNN Newsroom: Interview With California Rep. Jim Costa On State's Severe Weather

Interview

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Well, we've had a devastating effect and we're still attempting to determine the economic losses. We are surveying every agricultural county in the valley and elsewhere in California every week to determine what the crop losses are going to be, based upon flooding that's taking place.

The reemerging of a historic lake called Tulare Lake and we're not out of the woods yet because as the temperatures are increasing now --

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-- in the springtime, in May, it was 93 degrees today, that 250 percent to 300 percent snow pack in the high Sierra Nevadas above normal. That's 250 percent to 300 percent above normal is just now starting to melt.

And so we're concerned about additional flooding. That's why road -- this bipartisan letter to ask the leadership in the House and in the Senate to work with the president on the disaster designation status that he has declared on those counties that have been the hardest hit.

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Well, the disaster status makes funding available from FEMA. And it also provides additional funding from other sources, as we're determining how we're going to make up the losses that have been impacted by our farms.

We've had dairies that are milking 2,000 cows and more that have had to be relocated. And that's quite a challenge, to move 2,000 to 3,000 cows and then to try to find a setting where they can continue to be milked.

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Yes, and that number will, sadly, I think, grow, because land that cannot be put back into production -- I mean, usually we are in the middle of planting season in March. We're now at the end of April and we're now just starting to plant some of these crops, where we can get in the ground.

But there are other places, where this Tulare Lake is reemerging, that we're not going to be able to get in that ground for over a year or longer. And so farm workers are going to be very much impacted. And we're looking for assistance for them as well.

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Well, undoubtedly they're going to cost more. I mean, let me give you some numbers. I mean, California produces 98 percent of the processed tomatoes. You know, that's tomato sauce for pasta and for pizza and all those wonderful things we enjoy; 85 percent of the citrus.

And so we are still trying to determine how our navel oranges and mandarins have been impacted; 75 percent of the world's almonds, 50 percent of the world's pistachios, 20 percent of all the milk product for the United States is produced in California.

So we're the number one agricultural state, people tend to forget that, with over 300 crops that we grow. And so we're going to find that impact in the grocery store and in our favorite restaurants and fast food places.

We don't know what the totality of that's going to be yet at this time. We're trying to make a determination so that we can try to mitigate for those losses.

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Thank you.

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