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numbers paint a difficult picture for our industry."
• An industry-led relief fund raised $5.4 million for South Dakota ranchers affected by the storm while they waited for Congress to complete work on the farm bill, which President Barack Obama signed into law Feb. 7. The fund handled applications from about 600 ranchers. Christen said she expects the number who apply for aid from the federal government to be even higher because some ranchers didn't apply to the relief fund, thinking others were more in need of immediate help.
• "I also assume the number of (livestock) losses will be higher," she said, since the estimate 43,000 animal deaths was based on applications to the private Rancher Relief Fund.
• North Dakota Stockmen's Association Executive Vice President Julie Ellingson said the lower number of Livestock Indemnity Program applications from that state sounded reasonable.
• "The devastating storm was intense -- catastrophic for some -- but in a relatively concentrated area in our state," she said.
• An industry-led relief effort also raised $163,000 for affected North Dakota ranchers.
• Ellingson said she expects more North Dakota applications to be submitted to the federal aid program, especially since there were some winter storms earlier last year that were hard on calf crops.
• The Livestock Indemnity Program can cover as much as two-thirds of a rancher's loss. Signup continues through next January.
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AP News in Brief
In emotional return, residents check on their damaged homes after rebels leave Syrian city
• HOMS, Syria (AP) -- Hundreds of Syrians, some snapping photographs with their cell phones, wandered down paths carved out of rubble in the old quarters of Homs on Friday, getting their first glimpse of the horrendous destruction that two years of fighting inflicted on rebel-held parts of the city.
• The scenes that greeted them were devastating: City blocks pounded into an apocalyptic vista of hollow facades of blown-out buildings. Dust everywhere. Streets strewn with rebar, shattered concrete bricks, toppled telephone poles and the occasional charred, crumpled carcasses of cars.
• For more than a year, President Bashar Assad's troops blockaded these neighborhoods, pounding the rebel bastions with his artillery and air force. Under a (Continued on page 46)
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