Local News in Brief : Quake Loans Approved

The federal government has approved $140 million in earthquake disaster loans to residents of Los Angeles and Orange counties, a Small Business Administration official said.

However, loans were issued to only 57% of the homeowners and merchants who sought SBA funds, said Robert L. Belloni, the agency’s director of disaster assistance in the western United States.

Belloni told a group of Whittier business leaders that about 14,300 applications have been processed since the Oct. 1 earthquake and about 300 are still being handled. A decision will be made on those applications by the end of this month, he said.

The average amount of quake damage reported by businesses was $43,000, Belloni said. The average residential damage was $17,000. Officials have estimated that the quake caused about $360 million damage throughout Southern California.