After flooding, FEMA can bail you out — the rest is up to you

The disaster recovery center in Little River closed Wednesday night, but people can still apply for FEMA assistance until January 4.

Construction was underway on Waccamaw Drive, in Conway, where flooding hit homes hard. Homeowners were getting help with repairs through FEMA, but homes sure didn’t look like they did before.

FEMA had received more than 96,000 applications statewide, Wednesday, but denied 50,000 of them.

“What FEMA does is get the house back to where it’s habitable and really that’s all. We’re not designed to put things back the way they were,” Kurt Pickering, a FEMA spokesperson, said.

That means repairs would be done, they just may not look so pretty. The FEMA focus is secure, safe, and sanitary. Holiday party ready isn’t on there.

“We wouldn’t be fixing a dent. Now if you’ve got a wall with a hole in it...,” Pickering said, then you’re in business.

If you’ve been denied, you can appeal. And if you have good repairs that FEMA helped with, but are lacking that homey feel, that’s where SBA comes in.

“Those homeowners can get financial disaster loans for the repair of their home, which could include the paint, the carpeting, the roof. We put them back to where they were,” Adrianne Laneave, an SBA spokesperson, said.

SBA had granted $108 million in loans statewide as of Wednesday, the majority to homeowners, not businesses.

“They can turn around and help use our money to get them made whole,” Laneave explained.

You can also apply for an SBA loan through January 4.

Read more with our Grand Strand News Alliance partner WPDE (ABC-15)

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 8:31 PM with the headline "After flooding, FEMA can bail you out — the rest is up to you."