Feds offering help for late winter flood victims in South Bend, Elkhart County

May 29--SOUTH BEND -- If there was an epicenter of the floods that hit Michiana earlier this year, it might have been the corner of Marquette and Angela boulevards in the Northshore Triangle neighborhood.

There, Michael Hepner said his home was among the first to flood, a day earlier than his neighbors to the south and southeast, in a neighborhood that was hit hardest in St. Joseph County by the St. Joseph River flooding that occurred from Feb. 14 through March 4.

Hepner estimates he and his wife will spend close to $30,000 on recovery and repairs, money that the couple, with four children under age 8, had been saving to add on to the bungalow.

Three months after the flood, their living and dining rooms are still cluttered with tall stacks of things they salvaged from the flooded basement.

But a bit of a silver lining to those clouds emerged recently when the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration opened Disaster Recovery Centers in the Leighton Center office building, across Michigan Street from Memorial Hospital, and in Elkhart at the Elkhart County Health Department, which is housed in the former Lincoln School on Oakland Avenue. They were two of nine Indiana counties declared as federal disaster areas earlier this month.

"They were here, they came in, they inspected, and about three days later we got a check (a FEMA grant equal to about 10 percent of their estimated damages)," Hepner said. "Nowhere near going to cover our losses. But I didn't think it was going to happen at all. It was a nice surprise."

FEMA and SBA want flood victims to know that they are in town to help, either with smaller FEMA grants that damage victims don't repay, or low-interest SBA loans. Since May 17 the temporary centers have been open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

SBA spokeswoman Karen Knapik explained how the two federal agencies are working together.

"FEMA helps you with short-term, temporary assistance for small repairs," Knapik said, "and then while you're getting assistance from FEMA we're helping you fill out our application so we can actually help you get back to where you were before this happened."

Knapik said about 80 percent of people who register with FEMA will be referred to SBA, which determines their need and how much the federal government can loan them.

Homeowners can borrow up to $200,000 at 1.8 percent annual interest, and renters can borrow up to $40,000 to replace their personal property.

"We go above and beyond what FEMA can do, and we fill the gaps in for insurance," she said.

Businesses and nonprofits can borrow up to $2 million, at annual interest rates of 3.58 percent for businesses and 2.5 percent for nonprofits.

For example, FEMA might give a grant to repair or replace a furnace, while SBA would grant a loan to restore the whole basement, Knapik said.

"But if you get declined by SBA, that can put you back in line for additional grant money that you do not pay back, from FEMA," said FEMA spokeswoman Rita Egan.

If people stayed in hotels or rented housing immediately after the flooding, or bought things such as cleaning or building materials, and saved their receipts, they can be reimbursed with FEMA grants.

Understanding how FEMA and SBA work together for flood victims can become overwhelming and confusing, which is why Egan and Knapik want anyone damaged by the floods to come into the centers and sit down with staff.

"We don't want anybody to say that they're not eligible or there isn't any benefits," Knapik said. "We want everyone to try, and see what is out there for them. This is their taxpayer dollars, they are eligible for this, and we don't want them to miss out."

Since the May 5 disaster declaration, about 1,500 households in the nine counties have registered for assistance. FEMA has paid out $1.6 million in grants, while the SBA has approved about $660,000 in loans, with many applications yet to be processed.

Northshore Triangle homemaker Meg Tull, whose basement took on 18 inches of water, visited the South Bend recovery center Thursday. She was told an inspector would visit her home within 10 to 14 days, and he came later that day.

"He called my husband 40 minutes after I left the office and he was very efficient, very professional, very nice, so we'll see," Tull said. "It's a lot of expenses. I'm not trying to sound like, poor us, but it's insane how it impacts every ... you just have to go down a list. Get this looked at, get this checked, get this fixed, replace this, replace that."

Tull said she has no idea how much the flood has cost them, but it probably exceeds $10,000. She has a folder full of receipts.

"I feel bad for some of the older people because I don't even know if they know they can go up there," Tull said, noting she was surprised that the county EMA didn't notify her that the local disaster centers were opening. She only knew because she read about it in The Tribune.

Tull said she hopes to receive some grant help to reimburse some of their losses, but she won't borrow money from the SBA to refurnish the basement. With the neighborhood's recent floods, she fears her basement could flood again.

"We're gun-shy," she said. "It's weird to look downstairs and see all your stuff floating around in the water."

Hepner agreed. After two basement floods in the 18 months they've lived there -- the first came in 2016, shortly after he spent $30,000 to finish the basement -- and some water on the basement floor from just a two-inch rain May 14, he and his wife have decided to sell their home. They close next week on a house in Lakeville, where Hepner was sure to research the property's drainage history.

"We'd stay here forever" if not for the flooding, he said. "We like the location and like the house."

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