Benton County seeing millions in loans, relief funding after Memorial Day storms

The Small Business Administration has approved 67 loans totaling $5.4 million to Benton County residents affected by the Memorial Day weekend storms, spokesperson Jessica Roles told Axios.

• Sixty-four of those are home loans.

Why it matters: The storms, including seven tornadoes, killed three people and caused extensive damage. At least 88 homes in Benton County were destroyed, while 356 more were significantly battered.

Zoom out: FEMA had approved more than $3.4 million for affected Benton County residents as of Monday, the agency told Axios.

Meanwhile, the philanthropic Benton County Relief Fund is still accepting donations to help people cover expenses like missed work.

• The nonprofit Excellerate Foundation has raised more than $2.27 million for the fund and distributed $1.25 million, its chief program officer, Jeff Fletcher, told Axios.
• So far, 837 households and nonprofits have received financial assistance through the fund.
• The fund has gotten 41 requests from nonprofits; those applications are now closed. It received another 1,500 applications from households.

The latest: Rogers officials expect debris pickup will continue through August, a news release stated. Residents do not need to schedule a pickup — only to place debris curbside, separated by vegetative (tree branches and such) and nonvegetative (construction rubble and similar materials).

• Crews had collected 645,000 cubic yards of debris as of Friday.
• The public debris dropoff site on West Oak Street in Rogers has closed. However, Rogers residents can still drop off debris Monday-Saturday, 7:30am-5pm, and 1-4pm Sunday at 2300 N. Arkansas St.
• See details and a map for county debris pickup .

What's next: Federal public assistance to local governments is in the works.

• "FEMA public assistance is currently in the process of scheduling recovery meetings with applicants to discuss their damages and documentation that will be needed to process their requests for reimbursement," FEMA told Axios in an email.