Another disaster recovery center closing in Richland County

Another disaster recovery center in Richland County will close on Wednesday as federal agencies scale back operations in South Carolina.

The center at the Richland Library's main branch in downtown Columbia will become the third in Richland County to close in less than a week. Two others closed Friday.

Disaster recovery centers are staffed by representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Small Business Administration and South Carolina Emergency Management Division who can help residents affected by the record rain on Oct. 4.

Richland County's remaining center is at the Southeast branch library, 7421 Garners Ferry Road. Another center at the Irmo branch library in Lexington County also remains open.

Disaster officials have said centers close only after receiving minimal visits over several days.

The deadline to apply for federal disaster assistance was Jan. 4, but some centers remain open to help residents who applied. Those can be found at http://asd.fema.gov/inter/locator/home.htm.

FEMA’s helpline, 800-621-3362, remains open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Applicants also can visit disasterassistance.gov. SBA loan applicants still can visit disasterloan.sba.gov/ela or call the SBA’s helpline at 800-659-2955.