Two flood items with deadlines: federal loans for July storm damage, and where the new maps stand

Loans for July’s storm damage, apply by November 23

The rain that flooded the southern end of the county on July 28 and 29 did not qualify for the big FEMA individual-assistance program. It did qualify for the next tier. On September 25 Governor Hochul announced that the U.S. Small Business Administration had approved a physical disaster declaration naming Columbia and Rensselaer counties as primary counties, with Albany, Saratoga, Washington, Dutchess, Greene and Ulster eligible as neighbors.

That opens SBA’s low-interest disaster loans to anyone in Rensselaer County with uninsured or underinsured losses from that storm, not just businesses:

• Homeowners: up to $500,000 to repair or replace a primary residence.
• Homeowners and renters: up to $100,000 for personal property, including vehicles.
• Businesses and private nonprofits: up to $2 million for physical damage, and up to $2 million in economic injury loans for lost income even without physical damage.

Apply at lending.sba.gov or call 1-800-659-2955. The deadline for physical-damage applications is November 23, 2026; economic injury applications run to June 24, 2027. Interest rates on these loans are set below market and terms can run to 30 years, and there is no cost to apply and no obligation to accept. If your basement, well, driveway or outbuilding took damage in that storm and insurance did not cover it, this is worth an hour.

The new flood maps: what we learned, and what we didn’t

FEMA and the state DEC held their drop-in open house on the county’s preliminary flood maps at HVCC on September 29, as we previewed. No local outlet covered it, and we have not found any published analysis of what the new panels show for the Hoosic River, the Tomhannock Creek or the Deep Kill in Schaghticoke. We checked the Federal Register through October 2: FEMA has not yet published the “proposed flood hazard determinations” notice for Rensselaer County that starts the formal 90-day appeal period. The maps are preliminary, available to view, and not yet on a legal clock.

What that means in practice:

• You can compare old and new maps for your parcel now, in FEMA’s side-by-side viewer, and download the preliminary panels and the new Flood Insurance Study from the preliminary data portal.
• Comments and questions can go to FEMA any time; formal appeals, which need technical data such as a surveyed elevation certificate, become possible once the Federal Register notice runs. The town, as the local floodplain administrator, gets the same notice and the same 90 days.
• Nothing changes on your insurance until the maps become effective, which typically follows the appeal period by six months or more. If the new map moves you into a high-risk zone, buying a policy before the effective date can lock in a lower rate under the program’s grandfathering rules; an insurance agent who writes flood policies can walk you through it.

We will post the Federal Register notice and the appeal deadline the day it appears, and we are still looking for anyone who attended the open house and saw the Schaghticoke panels. If that was you, tell us what you saw.

Sources: the Governor’s September 25 announcement of the SBA declaration and Spectrum News’s coverage; SBA program terms from sba.gov; the DEC and Town of North Greenbush notices for the September 29 open house; our own search of federalregister.gov for Rensselaer County flood hazard determination notices through October 2, 2026. Loan terms are SBA’s and subject to its eligibility review.