Georgia Recovery Aid Tops $1.3 Million

In a fast-paced month of disaster recovery efforts, state and federal recovery officials pointed to on-going progress in bringing a wide range of disaster assistance to Georgia individuals, businesses and public entities hit hard by mid-March tornadoes and severe storms.

Recovery officials said that since the initial Presidential declaration, more than 99 percent of $928,100 in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Individual and Households Program assistance has been disbursed to approved applicants. Approved U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster-related loans to homeowners, renters and businesses now total approximately $446,000.

The deadline for homeowners, renters and business owners in the seven declared counties to register for disaster assistance is May 19.

On March 20, President Bush initially declared Fulton County residents eligible for FEMA's Individual and Households Program assistance. Two days later, residents in Bartow, Burke, DeKalb, Floyd, Jefferson and Polk counties were declared eligible for the program.

In addition, Burke, Fulton and Jefferson counties were declared eligible for FEMA's Public Assistance program to help reimburse local governments, eligible state agencies and certain qualified non-profits for uninsured disaster-related infrastructure costs.

To date, 25 Public Assistance project worksheets submitted by eligible applicants are nearing completion. Each project worksheet spells out the project purpose, cost, timeline and other information. An applicant may have a number of projects - debris removal, emergency protective services, roads, bridges, public parks, etc. Approved Public Assistance projects are funded on a cost-share basis, with FEMA funding 75 percent of the approved reimbursement and the remaining 25 percent shared by the state and local governments.