Governor signs state disaster declaration for Dorian affected counties

 RALEIGH, NC (News Release) — Today Governor Roy Cooper signed a state disaster declaration for counties that suffered damages from Hurricane Dorian, making additional assistance available to residents there.

“Today’s state disaster declaration will help North Carolinians recovering from Hurricane Dorian get vital assistance necessary to recover,” said Governor Cooper.

At the Governor’s request, the U.S. Small Business Administration granted a disaster declaration for Carteret, Dare, Hyde and New Hanover and the contiguous counties of Beaufort, Brunswick, Craven, Currituck, Jones, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Tyrrell and Washington, allowing affected residents to apply for low interest SBA disaster loans. With the signing of the state disaster declaration, the governor authorizes individual assistance in the form of state-funded grants to be made available to affected individuals who do not meet the qualifications for an SBA loan or who have damages not covered by insurance.

Recovery centers will open at 11 AM Friday and remain open through October 31 for residents to apply for assistance. Hours will be 9 AM to 6 PM on weekdays and 10 AM to 2 PM on Saturday and closed on Sunday.

HYDE – OCRACOKE

Variety Store Parking Lot

950 Irvin Garrish Highway

Ocracoke, NC 27960

CARTERET

Board of Elections Office

1702 Live Oak Street

Beaufort, NC 28516

DARE

Old PNC Bank

47013 Buxton Back Road

Buxton, NC 27920

NEW HANOVER

New Hanover Co. Public Library NE Branch

1241 Military Cutoff Road

Wilmington, NC 28405

Applicants may also apply online using the Electronic Loan Application (ELA) via SBA’s secure website at DisasterLoan.sba.gov.

Businesses and individuals may also obtain information and loan applications by calling the SBA’s Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955 or 1-800-877-8339 for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, or by emailing disastercustomerservice@sba.gov. Loan applications can also be downloaded at DisasterLoan.sba.gov and brought to the recovery centers.  Residents with questions about state-funded individual assistance can call 919-825-2378.

The SBA disaster request and state disaster declaration follow FEMA’s denial of North Carolina’s request for Individual Assistance on October 8th.