U.S. loans available to help Aliquippa flood victims
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
By Michael Birnbaum
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Four days after a major flood swept through Aliquippa, residents and business owners continued the arduous work of cleaning up, a task made more difficult yesterday by heat and winds whipping up dust clouds that made the town seem like a set from a western movie.The only respite was the expectation that the damage was extensive enough to qualify Aliquippa for federal disaster assistance loans, an announcement made yesterday at a news conference by Tim Baughman, western area director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.Mr. Baughman said that at least 40 businesses or residences in the Beaver County town have more than 40 percent uninsured losses from the flood that followed thunderstorms Thursday. Water rushed down the town's main street, Franklin Avenue, pushing parked cars onto sidewalks and rising inside storefronts.The federal Small Business Administration, which offers the loans, requires at least 25 businesses or residences to have 40 percent uninsured losses before an area can qualify for the program.The program issues low-interest loans of up to $200,000 to homeowners for the repair or replacement of their real estate and additional amounts for the replacement of their personal property. Businesses and nonprofit groups are eligible for loans of up to $1.5 million.Federal grants such as were extended in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina are usually given after much more severe disasters, Mr. Baughman said, and aren't expected in Aliquippa."In some cases, we're not going to be able to make everybody whole," he said. "We're not going to be able to bring everybody back to full restoration. But we'll give it the best shot that we can." U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless, pledged his support for the effort, and expressed his desire "to make sure we don't lose everything down there in the downtown area."Some businesses were less pessimistic than they had been last week."Things are looking quite a bit better," said Erin Stevenson, a volunteer at Uncommon Grounds Cafe. "Now we're just in the restoration process."On Thursday, proprietor John Stanley was worried that he might have to close the popular cafe and performance space; now, he hopes to reopen it in a week or two.And Wayne Bink, a captain with the Salvation Army, said that aid efforts were going well, despite the large number of residents who didn't have flood insurance."This isn't really a flood area, after all," said Mr. Bink.The town should know by Thursday whether it qualifies for the loan assistance, which would be granted by the Small Business Administration.Mr. Baughman also assured Aliquippa residents that the state budget standoff that has resulted in furloughs of some state workers will not affect any of the disaster response efforts.