From The Guardian UK
By Frank Bass

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite promises of a swift response to Katrina, the U.S. Small Business Administration didn’t deliver any loan checks to companies in the disaster zone during the first month after the hurricane, according to records obtained by the Associated Press.

The SBA handed out 950,000 ‘applications for disaster loans, received 26,100 responses and approved just 142 loans without cutting any checks as of Monday - the one-month anniversary of Katrina’s first landfall, the records show.

SBA officials said they expect the pace of approvals to pick up and the first checks to begin arriving to businesses soon. They blamed the delay on damaged roads, continued flooding and other obstacles that has made travel in the Gulf region more difficult.

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