Mobile center to help local flood victims
A Mobile Disaster Recovery Center will open in East Moline Monday to answer questions and help fill out disaster loan applications for those who suffered flood damages from a June 1 storm.
Disaster recovery specialists from the Illinois and federal emergency management agencies and the U.S. Small Business Administration will be stationed at the center, which will be at East Moline Fire Department Station 22, 1523 Morton Drive.
The center, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day from Monday until July 19, will be for those in Rock Island County who suffered losses or damages from severe storms on June 1.
Rock Island County Board Chairman Jim Bohnsack said the center is opening in East Moline because that’s where most of the damage occurred, particularly in the Watertown neighborhood.
“That’s where it should be,” he said. “There wasn’t much damage elsewhere in the county.”
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias will visit the center Monday and will attend a town hall meeting on flood relief at 6 p.m. at the IBEW Local 145 hall, 1700 52nd Ave.
Bohnsack hopes the center, which is moving from one county to the next, will help answer questions that local officials have been unable to resolve.
“You can talk to a human being rather than going through some other form of communication,” he said. “In person is so much better.”
East Moline Mayor John Thodos said he and Alderman Gary Westbrook, Ward 7, met with FEMA officials Friday morning about the center. He said many low-income residents won’t qualify for the SBA loans, but submitting an application will help the government decide whether they’re eligible for grants.
“From there we can go ahead and enter all the claims of all the people affected by the flooding,” he said. “They can get questions answered there that I can’t answer.”
Thodos said about 150 homes in the Watertown and Cottage Grove areas suffered damages. There are some residents, mostly renters, who have not been able to move back home.
Thodos said those who lost their jobs because their vehicles were damaged by flooding and they couldn’t get to work can also apply for unemployment benefits.
More information on disaster recovery is available at rockislandcounty.org, fema.gov, floodsmart.gov and ready.illinois.gov.
Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment