Hell hasn’t turned up yet but high water sure has come to Pelham recently.

Although many citizens pointed a finger of blame at the city for damages to their homes and property, city officials maintained there was nothing that could have prevented the recent flash floods as high as three and a half feet in some areas.

With the remnants of Hurricane Bill tearing through central Alabama, heavy rains have again dumped more and more water on an already saturated ground, raising creeks and spilling over ponds.

Some 80 residents were left with soiled carpet and ruined furniture a couple of weeks ago.

And when the sun came out and all the mopping up was through, their checkbooks faced some pretty hard hits, with many still

paying off costly debts from previous flood repairs.

City and county officials fought hard to get aid for the residents who were washed out and seemingly left hanging out to dry.

And although the Federal Emergency Management Agency didn’t grant a disaster declaration for Shelby County (the damages weren’t excessive enough for that to happen), their efforts paid off.

Thanks to officials like Mayor Bobby Hayes and others at the Shelby County EMA, the Small Business Administration has declared the county to be under disaster status and will be accepting applications for low-interest loans.

But they didn’t stop there. The city has offered up the Pelham Civic Complex to host the SBA during the process.

The flooding problems may not have been the &uot;fault&uot; of the city or county; but it’s nice to see them rise to the occasion in helping local residents