Updated Oct. 13 at 12:02 p.m.
Two federal agencies have extended the deadline to apply for flood-related aid to Oct. 31, officials announced at a press conference Wednesday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency offers aid through its Individuals and Households Program, including home repair expenses and rental costs for displaced homeowners and renters.
As the previous Oct. 12 deadline approached, Will Roy, a coordinating officer for the agency, said that “we recognized that we were getting a number of eligible applicants day after day after day.”
The state also requested an extension based on its analysis of the applications, he said. FEMA has distributed $21.4 million to individual and household applicants so far.
People in nine Vermont counties — Caledonia, Chittenden, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Rutland, Washington, Windham and Windsor — are eligible to apply for the program, according to FEMA’s website.
The Small Business Administration also extended the deadline to apply for disaster loans to Oct. 31. The disaster loans are open to businesses, nonprofits and homeowners looking for a loan to repair disaster-related damage, according to the SBA website.
Addison County’s early August flooding was recently declared a federal disaster by President Joe Biden, but as of Oct. 11, assistance is available only for state and local governments and some nonprofits, not individuals or households.
The FEMA individual assistance also applies only to damage suffered between July 7 and July 21, excluding damage in Rutland County from the early August floods.
The agency moved the disaster recovery center at the Barre Auditorium to the third floor of the building. The center at the Waterbury Armory is scheduled to close Oct. 14, while the center at the Ludlow Community Center does not yet have a scheduled end date.
A separate SBA program, economic injury loans, applies to businesses and nonprofits that suffered from revenue loss as a result of the disaster. The deadline to apply for those loans is currently set to April 2024.
Vermonters can apply for FEMA assistance in person at the disaster recovery centers, online, by phone or with the FEMA app. More details on the application process, what’s included in the grants, and appealing a decision are available here.
Sarah Mearhoff contributed reporting.
Correction: This story was updated with the change that the Barre disaster recovery center is moving to the third floor of the Barre Auditorium.
