Contact: Antonia Ferrier (202) 224-5344
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-ME), Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today spoke with senior Small Business Administration officials on behalf of York County small businesses and employees affected by the ongoing, devastating flooding. The SBA is dispatching a team to York County to assess the impact of the flooding and assist small businesses, homeowners and renters as they begin the recovery process. In addition to making loans to small business, the SBA also offers loan assistance to homeowners and renters harmed by disasters.

“With much of York County suffering from evacuations, damage to property and infrastructure, and a profound disruption of normal daily life, small businesses, and their employees are suffering and in desperate need of help,” said Snowe. “It is becoming increasingly evident that federal assistance will be necessary for this part of southern Maine to recover from extensive damages, and I am pleased that the SBA has taken this first step of sending a team to evaluate the damage and answer small business owner’s questions. I will continue to be in touch with SBA officials as the situation develops, and I will do all I can to ensure that the affected businesses and their employees recover from this disaster as quickly as possible.”

Over a foot of rain has fallen over the last three days in York County. Over two hundred homes have been evacuated, with families taking shelter in two emergency shelters that have been opened in the communities of Kennebunk and Sanford. There has also been significant damage to roads, culverts and bridges causing wide-spread, serious structural damage in the towns and cities of Kittery/Eliot, Berwick, Arundel/Kennebunk, Biddeford, Buxton/Hollis, Dayton/Lyman/Saco, Kennebunkport, Lebanon, Limington, North Berwick, Ogunquit, Old Orchard Beach, Sanford, Shapleigh, and Wells. The Maine Department of Transportation to close eight bridges, three roads, and reduce traffic on five major routes in southern York County. In addition to the closure of state roads, the flooding has caused local municipalities to close more than sixty local roads to include bridges and intersections. At this time, twenty-two Maine National Guard personnel at the Sanford Armory have been providing bridge manning, and an additional twenty Maine National Guard personnel with the 133rd Engineers have been deployed today with equipment for debris removal.

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