While government agencies grind along on plans to prevent future flooding, most victims of the latest are on their own when it comes to mucking out basements and repairing damage.

There is no federal money coming and other than furnace and water heater programs, no government grants for those whose homes were inundated earlier this month in Ross, Millvale, Shaler and other communities.

Robert Full, chief of Allegheny County's emergency management services, said the tally from the Aug. 6 and Aug. 9 floods will be about 20 percent of what it was from Hurricane Ivan in September 2004.

Chief Full explained that money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is not going to be forthcoming because while the damages to infrastructure owned by local municipalities reached the $4 million required for aid, the other key ingredient to receive federal money did not exist: the commonwealth needed to sustain $15 million in damages to state-owned assets and that didn't happen.

There were more than a thousand single-family homes -- 500 in Ross, almost 300 in Millvale and another 100 in Shaler -- that were classified as "affected" by the floods. That, according to Chief Full, means they had water anywhere from on their basement floors to all the way up to the floorboards of the first floor.

In Oakmont, there were 20 multifamily homes affected.

In Penn Hills, 100 homes reported "minor" damage, which means water was on the first floor. Minor damage was also reported in 45 single-family homes in Monroeville, 41 in Ross, 30 in McKees Rocks, 25 in Millvale and 24 in Etna.

Countywide, 216 businesses suffered damage. One business in Pittsburgh was destroyed and 158 were affected in other parts of the county, including 67 in Millvale and 50 in Ross.

State Rep. Lisa Bennington, D-Morningside, who represents Millvale, was clearly frustrated by the lack of money for the flood victims.

"We have money in this county and state to build and subsidize arenas and stadiums, but we don't have cash on hand to give our citizens to clean sewage from their homes. That's an outrage to me," she said.

Gov. Ed Rendell said there is federal money to provide low-interest loans to residents and businesses through the U.S. Small Business Administration. He said that for businesses the state could step in and even cover the interest, making those loans interest-free.

As part of the cleanup effort, the American Red Cross has been at the Millvale Community Center distributing kits to disinfect people's basements.

And the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been cleaning accumulated sediment and debris from a 1-mile stretch of Girty's Run in Millvale.

The county and the Salvation Army are working to help residents who need water heaters and furnaces.

So far, 123 people have contacted the county seeking new water heaters.

Megan Dardanell, spokeswoman for County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, said the money for water heaters will come from the Salvation Army and federal Community Development Block Grants.

Ronald Schwartz, assistant regional director of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said there are 25 different watersheds in Allegheny County. He said that while there is no one cause or solution to all of the flooding issues in the county, DEP is now requiring major developments to have less runoff after they are built than there was from the property before construction.

Mr. Onorato and County Council President Rich Fitzgerald, D-Squirrel Hill, have said that issues such as flooding are why the county needs to be able to institute countywide zoning, something that the state Legislature has to approve.

Mr. Fitzgerald said the countywide zoning wouldn't address local issues, such as how far a building has to be set back from the property line, but it would be able to deal with wider concerns such as run-off that can affect other communities.

Ms. Bennington said she would support countywide zoning.