For flood victims with or without flood insurance, help is likely on the way from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). But it won't be here overnight.
According to information provided on the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency's website, no determination will be made if federal assistance will be available until the local assessment of damage is done by municipal officials, and those who experienced losses.
That process has slowly begun.
To that end, Northumberland County officials have invited a representative of every municipality affected by flooding to attend at meeting at 5 p.m. today at the administration building in Sunbury. (See separate story.)
Also today, the county hopes to begin distribution of the damage assessment forms that affected residents can fill out and submit to their local municipality by dropping it at a city or borough hall or township building. The forms include basic information such as name, address and telephone, and ask for details such as what appliances were ruined and the extent of damage on the basement and first floor levels. Flood victims are reminded to be compiling such information on paper and through photos and video.
(The News-Item will publish the form at newsitem.com when the county finalizes it, which may be prior to today's meeting.)
What happens next:
Here's how PEMA explains the "information chain" in this process:
- For individuals and businesses reporting property damages, and elected officials reporting municipal property and infrastructure damages, that information goes to the community's emergency management coordinator, which then gives the information to the county.
- The county coordinator will gather all the municipal information and submit it to PEMA.
- PEMA will then analyze the information to determine if the event warrants requesting assistance from either FEMA or SBA.
2 kinds of assistance
Depending on the damage, victims can possibly receive either FEMA grants or SBA loan-interest loans.
The SBA disaster declaration will come into play if at least 25 homes and/or businesses are affected in a community with 40 percent of them uninsured. The low-interest loans would be available for those who qualify financially.
If the results show that a Presidential Disaster Declaration is needed, grants from FEMA would be available for residential property owners and renters and community infrastructure repair.
As it stands right now, no disaster declaration for individual assistance has been made. Instead, the federal government has made an emergency declaration, and with that FEMA is authorized to provide "appropriate assistance and reimbursement for required emergency protective measurers, expended solely for measures taken to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe."
According to its website, however, PEMA officials are anticipating a request for public and individual assistance from FEMA, so it is imperative that all damages be fully reported and that the information chain is followed.