Homeowners seek aid, not loans
Residents say low-interest loans won't help them.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW BEAVER, Pa. -- The fact that U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter came to visit didn't keep Jean Ruby from speaking her mind.
"I don't need attitude; I need help," the New Beaver borough woman told the senator who stopped with his entourage to assess damage done by heavy rainstorms earlier this week at Freed's Trailer Park and Freed's Camp Road.
Ruby had to pick up the screen door and move it aside to show Specter the devastation flooding caused her small, one-story home.
"I've lost everything I have," she said.
"Well, we're going to try to help you," Specter said.
But the only option at this point, Specter said, are low-interest loans offered by the Small Business Administration.
Specter said he would do everything he could to speed up the SBA's access to the area. The 4 percent loans will be available to private homeowners, he said.
A loan isn't what Andrea Lee-Marnicio and Jamey Porto need, however.
Both women live along Freed's Camp Road and lost just about everything to the high waters that came off the nearby Little Beaver Creek. They, too, showed Specter damage done to their homes.
"Loans aren't going to help. I just put on a $53,000 addition and I have $40,000 worth of structural damage. How do I make another payment?" Lee-Marnicio said.
She has yet to tell her 7-year-old son that he has lost most of his toys in the flood.
About the loans
Porto also doesn't think the SBA loans that Specter was touting in his visit will help.
"What good is that going to do us? Everybody here lives hand to mouth," she said.
Porto said her husband ran a plumbing business out of their home but lost all his tools to the flood. She has taken the last week off work as a secretary to help clean up.
The women said water from the Little Beaver often comes up over the banks, but it had never come into their houses before.
But when they awakened Saturday morning, the water was covering the gravel road, and they could not drive their cars out. Firefighters had to rescue everyone by boat.
"You just keep thinking the river is going to crest, but it never did. It doesn't do this kind of thing. It doesn't ever go into the house," Lee-Marnicio said.
Porto said her lower-level family room had 4 feet of water, and the first floor of her ranch home had about 6 inches of water.
"It's just devastating. You can't imagine what it's like to lose everything you have," she said. "I'm just taking it one day at a time."