April Storm Victims May Be Eligible for Low-Interest Loans
WRCB
April 23, 2009
Governor Phil Bredesen requested a Small Business Administration Disaster Declaration for six counties affected by April's storms. The declaration makes homeowners and businesses affected by the April 10 storms eligible for low-interest loans.
The counties are:
Sequatchie
McMinn
Benton
Dickson
Moore
Rutherford
"Help from this federal program is another tool that can be used to assist Tennesseans as they recover and rebuild from this deadly storm," said Bredesen. "The state is working aggressively with local authorities to ensure that all applicable aid programs are engaged in the recovery process."
A survey by the Small Business Administration identified 44 homes with major damage and 768 homes with minor damage; 25 businesses were identified with major damage. The survey also found that the damaged homes and businesses had uninsured losses of 40 percent or more of their fair replacement cost.
"Based on this survey, I believe that we have exceeded the requirements for an SBA Disaster Declaration," said James Bassham, Director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
The contiguous counties of Cannon, Carroll, Houston and Humphreys would also be eligible for the SBA Disaster Program.
Damage and cost assessments are still on-going by some communities. An additional request for the federal Public Assistance Program to reimburse state and local governments, as well as certain non-profit agencies or utilities, will be made if the assessments qualify for the program by meeting the financial threshold.
There were not enough uninsured damages for the state to request the separate federal Individual Assistance Program for individual homeowners or businesses.
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