The Federal Emergency Management Administration has approved a disaster declaration for the San Carlos Apache Tribe to support recovery from flooding nearly a year ago.
The declaration covers the tribal reservation for both physical and economic damages suffered from Oct. 10-13, 2025, and within the contiguous counties of Apache, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Navajo and Pinal for assistance from the Small Business Administration.
In addition, the SBA is offering low-interest disaster recovery loans to tribal members and businesses.
Fred Koenig, a public affairs specialist with the SBA, said his agency and FEMA conducted a joint operation to assess the four most hard-hit communities of Gilson Wash, 7 Mile, Peridot and Bylas.
He said applications for loans due to physical damage had been extended until Sept. 30.
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Loans for economic injury are due no later than March 1, 2027. Those loans are designed to help businesses, agricultural cooperatives or private nonprofits close funding gaps due to disasters. Recipients can borrow up to $2 million for business expenses like payroll, inventory, rent and utilities, according to SBA. Koenig said business owners in the contiguous counties can also apply for economic injury loans due to the flooding.
"The loans have pretty good terms," Koenig said. "There are no fees or penalty for early payments." Interest rates vary from 3% to 4% for applicants who have no other credit access, to 3.625% to 8% for entities with credit available elsewhere.
Gov. Katie Hobbs and Mayor Al Gameros stop at an overpass over final creek as they tour through downtown Globe after flooding in October 2025.
Kevin Cassadore, San Carlos' Tribal Emergency Readiness Council head, said to date, FEMA officials had approved $600,000 for direct aid to 97 recipients, with another 108 in progress. These funds, unlike the SBA loans, do not require repayment. As of Aug. 1, about a dozen applications for damage or economic injury had been submitted. More are likely to be submitted before the loan deadlines.
Cassadore said it took the feds eight months to approve San Carlos' request. The FEMA officials who met with San Carlos' leadership could not say why the tribe's request had been approved while Globe's was not. But he said it might have been due to the lower threshold the tribe had compared to local communities.
"We're still concerned because tribal members live there," Cassadore said. Businesses the tribe does business with and where tribal members shop were also affected.
The state approved $10 million for flood damage recovery in the Globe-Miami area and Gila County in its 2027 budget.
Tribes were authorized to make their own requests for a presidential emergency or major disaster declaration in 2013. Previously, they were required to join with a state to ask for disaster assistance from the feds.
