PATTON — Borough officials are looking to secure possible funding from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency for its residents after several homes were flooded from Chest Creek on Monday.

A statement posted on the borough’s website Wednesday morning said Cambria County commissioners met with borough officials Tuesday afternoon to discuss options.

“The Cambria County commissioners came out and met with borough officials (Tuesday) afternoon and are trying to see if each of the municipalities who may not have enough damage on their own can be combined as one northern part of the county group,” the statement read. “While they make no guarantees, they informed us they will do whatever they can within criteria set.”

“In order to assess (whether) there is enough damage to meet PEMA’s criteria, we need to have homeowners and businesses who may have been (affected) by the flooding. If you are not sure (whether) you may qualify, it does not hurt to fill out and return a form,” the statement said.

Completed forms need to be submitted by Monday. They will then be sent to Cambria County’s Department of Emergency Services.

Art Martynuska, Cambria County Department of Emergency Services deputy director, said the funding amount the borough could receive from the state would depend on the number of forms returned and other factors.

“It would. That’s the first benchmark; how many people actually reply back and there has to be a certain level of damage based on the type of structure that it is,” Martynuska said. “If you have a regular house, if you get water on the first floor, that’s one thing. Now, if you have manufactured homes, like the ones they evacuated — the mobile homes and trailers — if the water gets up underneath into the insulation, that’s another benchmark.”

“So, it’s dependent on the type of building that it is, No. 1. No. 2 is the level of damage — was it first floor, was it insulation — and

No. 3 is how many of them were affected in total across the borough,” Martynuska said.

He said he thinks the state would need at least 25 forms with significant damage to be submitted before Patton could be included in the county group.

“Then what would happen is, we would look at having the Small Business Administration come in and possibly doing low-interest loans. If a significant number of households were damaged, we should have that information on the deadline that they’ve imposed,” Martynuska said. Then, of course, it’s gonna take a little while to get the process moving with the Small Business Administration.”

Forms are available on the borough’s website, the Patton municipal building and at a local bank.

PennCrest Bank’s Patton Branch Manager Sara Byrne said she contacted borough officials early Wednesday morning to see what she could do to help.

“They said that we could help contact people and residents in this area that had any damage and encourage them to fill out the forms. We’ve been asking, telling and encouraging (residents), if they had any damage, to fill out the form so we can get as many as we can,” Byrne said, adding that the bank has not donated money to the borough for cleanup efforts.

“I did call Queen of Peace church to see if there was anything we could do to help people that they knew that were in need, and they mentioned that American Red Cross gave cleaning supplies. With the rain that’s coming today, she said that, if they need anything else, then they would contact me.”

Byrne said, if called upon, she would give the church food and cleaning supplies to help residents and called the recent flooding “surprising.”

“You would never expect this to happen in Patton,” she said. “I’ve heard people say comments that they’ve lived here all their life, and they’ve never seen it get that bad; It’s sad.”

Resident Jill Sunseri, who lives along Donnelly Avenue past Hilyer’s Hardware, was at the municipal building Wednesday to receive an assessment form. She said she hopes residents can get financial help from the state.

“I hope we can because I don’t have flood insurance. I’m not considered in the flood zone, so I didn’t have it.”

Sunseri said she’s lived at her residence for 16 years, “and this is the first it’s ever gotten into my house.”

“My damage is my whole yard,” she said. “My basement got flooded, and it’s a finished basement with two of our kids’ bedrooms. The floor, the carpet … it’s all gonna need torn out.”

Forms can also be left in the drop-off slot on the Patton Police Department’s door, outside of the borough’s business hours.