Severe storms and flooding have brought financial hardship over the past month across the heartland. Some relief is being offered by the Small Business Administration, providing low interest loans for repairs and rebuilding in those devastated counties.

Schuyler, Nebraska was flooded nearly three weeks ago. "On some of the wood, you can kind of see it was up to here." Vi Krupka's basement was a casualty.

"It's gonna be a hell of a mess, we don't know what to do." The same thing happened 18 years ago, but the Krupkas didn't expect lightning to strike twice. "No, we had no flood insurance. We did have at one time, but we paid our house off so we dropped it because it was expensive."

Vi's is just one of 250 homes in Schuyler alone that were damaged by flooding. "Most people think they're always adequately insured and in times of disaster they find out they rarely are,” says Phil Duncan with the Small Business Administration.

According to Duncan, most people don't realize they can turn to his agency for help. "In times of disaster, we make direct loans to homeowners, renters, businesses of any size, they don't have to be small businesses, and even private non-profit businesses like churches."

"We just are going one day at a time with the money we have," says Vi. The water damaged more than carpet and drywall. "And then it just kept filling up and everything started cracking. If you look at the floors, we've kind of got road maps now."

She knows this won't be a quick fix, but tries to find hope in her family. "We've just got to continue on and pray that everybody can hang in there. That's all we can do."

The SBA loans are under three percent with terms up to 30 years. Victims should first call FEMA at 1-800-621-3362 to register for help.

Call the Small Business Administration at 1-800-659-2955 for low interest loans or log on to the SBA Web site for information.