SPRINGDALE -- State and federal assessment officers toured tornado damage in Springdale on Tuesday, but they said it might be a week before they can determine if the city will qualify for financial aid for residents.
Assessors from the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management and the federal Small Business Administration must first compile reports of their tour.
If the city fits the criteria, then those offices will ask Gov. Asa Hutchinson to declare the city and county as disaster areas under the state and federal guidelines, explained Melody Bozza of the Emergency Management Division. They also will ask Hutchinson to authorize use of the state's individual assistance program.
Bozza is an individual assistance officer for the state.
An EF-3 tornado March 30 traveled about 5 miles from near the Northwest Arkansas Mall to west of the Springdale Municipal Airport, reported the National Weather Service.
Hutchinson last Thursday said the damage does not qualify for assistance with the Federal Emergency Management Administration. He toured damaged areas with officials of the state emergency management office and the city.
Michael Schutta of the Small Business Administration said he needed to find 25 homes that were more than 40% damaged and not insured to meet one of the requirements for aid.
Bozza noted many homes with minor damage -- maybe a few missing shingles that might cost $5,000 to $10,000 to replace, she said. But that damage still counted in the assessor's survey of damage.
Schutta noted that mobile homes damaged in Whisler Motor Home & RV Park and the Woodridge Estates Mobile Home Park might not be worth that much, but they still are destroyed homes. Someone has been displaced, he said.
Insurance companies will pay to restore insured homes, Bozza said.
The assistance is for people who were uninsured or underinsured, said Mayor Doug Sprouse. Those who have insurance should be talking to their insurance agents, he said.
LaTresha Woodruff, a spokesman for the state Emergency Management Division, said there's no simple way to explain how the determinations are made.
"It is tiered-based on damage level, and whether or not you are a renter or owner, and if you had insurance or not," she said. "I do not have exact amounts, however, one could get up to approximately $9,000, again depending upon the level of damage."
The Emergency Management Division will notify residents if they qualify for aid, Bozza said.
But first, residents must apply for loans with the Small Business Administration. If they are turned down, they then can apply for the state grants.
"We don't want to duplicate benefits," Bozza said.
Bozza noted that residents should continue their repairs, but document the damage and save receipts, which they will provide when applying for aid.
"Go ahead and do what you need to do," she said.
Schutta said the Small Business Administration will offer small loans at 1.5% interest to help residents and renters "get back to where they were," he said.
He added that bankers will be able to provide a long timeline for repayments. "We don't want to give them a $500-a-month payment that they're no able to afford. We might give them a $100-a-month payment."
"We want people to be patient -- which is hard when you're impacted in this way, as folks here have been. But this is a process. They are hurting and they want their homes back," she said. "We understand, and we feel for them, and we are moving as fast as we can."
The Springdale building inspector, the Springdale Police Department and the Washington County Department of Emergency Management provided the assessors with information from their own assessments of the area.
Bozza said drone video of the damaged areas soon after the storm was the most helpful.
"We could see much of the damage from the drone footage, but sometimes you have to look at something straight on to see if it's been knocked astray," Bozza said.
Tornado damage tour video: nwaonline.com/413tornado/