Charlie Childers, left, gets a hand from his neighbor, Rusty Moore, in Carrol Acres the day after hail and storms tore through the Cullman area.

Several federal, state and local agencies are working together to help Cullman County residents recover from the March 19 hailstorms, whether through grants or low-interest loans. 

Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state and local emergency management agencies and the U.S. Small Business Administration have set up a Disaster Recovery Center in Cullman City Hall to assist people who received damage during the March 19 hailstorm. 

The DRC is located in the building’s old Fire Department administrative offices, which can be accessed from the building’s south-facing entrance across from the Cullman County Public Library. Representatives from each agency are available from Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

There are several avenues for assistance available for homeowners or business owners, and one of those is a low-interest loan from the Small Business Administration.

Sandra Lawson, public affairs specialist for the SBA, said homeowners, nonprofits and business owners can apply for low-interest loans that can help them recover from the March storms.

The deadline for applying for an SBA loan is June 25, and the application can be completed in person at the disaster recovery center or online at disasterloan.sba.gov/ela

The application can be started online, and if a person has any questions or concerns about it, they can bring it into the office for a customer service representative to speak with them and get assistance, Lawson said. 

Through the SBA, a business owner can receive up to $2 million in a physical disaster loan, and a homeowner can receive up to $200,000 for repairs to their home and $40,000 to replace lost property within the home, she said. 

Renters can also apply for the physical disaster loan for up to $40,000 to help replace their lost property, Lawson said.

A lot of people received vehicle damage from the storms, and that can be covered in a physical disaster loan as well, she said. 

She said the interest rates for the loans can be as low as 3.58 percent for a business, 2.5 percent for a nonprofit organization and 1.8 percent for a homeowner or renter.

“The good thing about these loans is that they are federal loans, so they aren’t through a bank,” Lawson said. “That’s why the rates can be as low as they are.”

For eligibility for the loans, the SBA will look for reasonable credit and ability to repay the loan, and will make sure that a person has not reneged on any government loans in the past, she said. 

“Basically, we try to help anybody in need as long as its a good match,” Lawson said. 

Once a loan application is approved, a person has up to two months to decide whether or not to take it, Lawson said. 

The SBA loans will not duplicate benefits, such as an insurance payout or any FEMA assistance that has already been received, but people can still apply for a loan while they are waiting on their insurance or other benefits to make sure all of their bases are covered, she said. 

“We cover the actual damages minus any benefits that you have received from other sources,” she said. 

The SBA also has a one-year payment deferral period, so no money will have to be payed back on the loan until one year after it was signed, Lawson said.

“With the low interest rates, the long-term payment plan and the deferral, it’s a great opportunity,” she said. “We encourage people to apply while the funding is available and the application period is open.”

FEMA Media Relations Manager Mike Wade said the DRC is also staffed with people who can accommodate people with disabilities —whether they need a sign language interpreter, large-key telephones, materials printed in braille or anything else to make sure that everyone gets the help the need, Wade said. 

“We have a lot of stuff that’s available here in the center that can help people with disabilities get through the processes,” he said.

Wade said all of the federal, state and local agencies are all working together towards a common goal of helping Cullman County residents, with FEMA working to make sure people are able to get their homes in a livable condition right now and the SBA working towards a long-term goal of getting things back the way they were before the storm. 

“It’s really a partnership between FEMA, the SBA, state and local governments and the local community,” he said. “We don’t do it all by ourselves. We can’t do it all by ourselves.”