More than 500 individual disaster claims were filed through Thursday at Northumberland County's four relief centers.
According to figures provided by Steve Reiner, acting director of public safety, 534 people filed claims at the four centers on Wednesday and Thursday. Of that total, 418 claims were filed from the Shamokin/Coal Township area.
That led county officials to extend hours for today at Shamokin's disaster relief center, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Northumberland County Career and Arts Center, Eighth and Arch streets.
Individual claims made through the county are
bound for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and will go a long way toward determining how much federal disaster-relief funding the state will be awarded to repair and replace roadways and bridges, among other uses affecting the public. These claims are separate from what needs to be filed by individual property owners and tenants affected by last week's flooding with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (See separate story.)
The remaining centers in Sunbury, Herndon and Milton had two-day totals of 35, 28 and 53, respectively, and were closed Friday.
Totals for Friday from all four centers were unavailable.
Individual disaster relief claims can also be scheduled next week at the county administration center, 399 S. Fifth St., Sunbury, during regular business hours.
The disaster relief center in Sunbury was hit-or-miss as far as visits went Thursday afternoon.
Gary Steffen, chief clerk of Northumberland County, was among a pair of volunteers staffing the center about noon Thursday. He said the process, thus far, was mostly procedural.
"The people, at least the ones I've dealt with, many of them have been through this before. They're familiar with the procedure," he said of Sunbury-area residents. Flood damage
Northumberland County reported the following individual disaster claims from Wednesday and Thursday. Friday numbers were not yet available:
Wednesday
Sunbury: 24
Herndon: 13
Shamokin: 238
Milton: 35
Total: 310
Thursday
Sunbury: 11
Herndon: 15
Shamokin: 180
Milton: 18
Total: 224
Two-day total: 534