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Flood assistance deadline approaching BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR ith a deadline looming and many in Western North Carolina still struggling to recover from deadly flooding this past August, officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Small Business Association want to make one thing clear: help in the form of lowinterest loans is still available, but it won’t be here forever. “The strong message that we want to get out is that the deadline is Nov. 8 for survivors and residents to fill out their registration with FEMA,” said Rossyveth Rey-Berrios, a Spanish/English media relations specialist with FEMA. “This is the first step.” Typically, those seeking individual assistance from FEMA have experienced flood damage to their homes, although other types of losses may also be covered. But FEMA works as sort of a tag-team with the SBA to deliver relief to victims. “FEMA provides safe, sanitary and secure provisions. Their purpose is to come in as soon as the disaster is declared and make sure that people can eat, that they have somewhere to stay and they can subsist,” said Terrell Perry, a public affairs specialist for the SBA. “And then they apply with SBA. SBA helps to start repairing your structure or replacing your contents, replacing your cars, et cetera.” During FEMA registration, applicants will need to have a few things handy, like a checking account and routing number, the affected property’s address and a phone number. Sharon Gadbois, a public affairs specialist with the SBA, said that upon registering with FEMA, applicants will likely get kicked over to the SBA though an email link. Although the SBA does indeed deal with small businesses — as the name suggests — people shouldn’t be confused by that, because the SBA is very much ready to handle applications by individuals. “We have four different types of disaster loans,” Gadbois said. “We have them for homeowners, renters, businesses and nonprofits and then also we have mitigation. For homeowners and renters, you don’t need to have a business.” More documentation will be required at
Smoky Mountain News
October 13-19, 2021
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SBA Small Business Recovery Centers Physical disaster loans from the SBA remain available to businesses, nonprofits, homeowners and renters in Buncombe, Haywood, and Transylvania counties. Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) are available to small businesses and most nonprofits in a wider area to include Henderson, Jackson, Madison, McDowell, Rutherford, Swain and Yancey counties in North Carolina, as well as Greenville, Oconee and Pickens counties in South Carolina and Cocke and Sevier counties in Tennessee. Apply online at sba.gov/disaster using declaration #17155 or call 800.659.2955. Or, meet one-on-one with an SBA rep for answers to your questions at one of several field operations centers in the declared disaster area.
this stage of the process, including a driver’s license and a blank, dated, voided check. Applicants should also be sure to note their application number on all document submissions, in case the documents get misfiled along the way. Loans granted through this process are designed to expedite home repair for the underinsured, the uninsured and those with insurance. For example, an insured homeowner who experienced damage would typically file an insurance claim, get an estimate for the cost of the repairs and engage a contractor, paying that contractor out-of-pocket or waiting for a check from their insurance company before beginning work. With a disaster assistance loan, that homeowner wouldn’t have to use personal savings to pay the contractor, or wait for the insurance check to come. Instead, they could use the proceeds of the loan and when the insurance company check comes, use that to pay off the loan. If the homeowner already dipped into savings, the loan could be used to replenish those funds, and if the insurance company doesn’t quite provide enough funding for the repairs, the loan could help bridge that gap. “Most people do not know that if they
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Register with FEMA by Nov. 8 for individual assistance Individuals affected with flood damage covered by President Joe Biden’s emergency declaration of Sept. 8 (Buncombe, Haywood and Transylvania counties) are encouraged to register with FEMA by Nov. 8, in reference to North Carolina Disaster Declaration DR4617-NC. There are several ways to do so. • Online: fema.gov • Smartphone app: apple.com/app-store or samsung.com/us/apps/galaxy-store • Telephone: 800.621.3362 already have repaired or rebuilt their property, they can get from reimbursed for that expense,” Rey-Berrios said. The same goes for renters who have lost personal property, or uninsured homeowners. Home repair can be expensive, especially if you’re footing the entire bill with cash, so the loan could help lessen the sting for some. It does so in a variety of ways, as a disaster
assistance loan is a different animal than the more common bank loan. “We do look at credit, however, we don’t solely grant loans based on credit,” said Perry. “We take into consideration assets as well as history, as well as for businesses, revenue potential. Those kinds of things we take into consideration. Normal financial institutions may or may not take those into consideration.” Loans are typically disbursed two or three weeks after approval, and applicants generally have up to six months to accept them. Applicants don’t have to accept the full amount, either. Once accepted, the loans don’t require the first payment for a full 18 months. Terms are usually 15 to 30 years with no prepayment penalty and offer rock-bottom fixed interest rates: 1.563% for homeowners, and 2.855% for businesses. Of particular interest to people in the declared individual disaster area (Buncombe, Haywood and Transylvania counties) are the thousands of private roads and bridges across the mountainous west. Perry said they’re covered too. “Sometimes they’re owned by individuals, so the individual would need to apply. And then sometimes several families use the private road or bridge. In that case, the families would need to come together and make sure that their individual loan officers know,” Perry said. “If you have a homeowners association that owns the road or bridge, the HOA would apply.” The entire endeavor is designed to be quick, easy and beneficial to victims of natural disasters, but complications resulting in denials can occur. Although there is an appeals process in the event of an unfavorable determination, sometimes the ultimate reason people are denied assistance is of their own making. “Encourage your readers to please take their time when filling out the application. It’s very important because when they call in to ask about their application, they have to verify their identity and if those key things are not there, then they’ll be like, ‘Sorry, I can’t talk to you anymore,’ and [people] get frustrated,” Gadbois said. “It’s very important that they double-check, triple-check, even a bank account.”
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