For the second time, officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have denied the state's request for federal help for victims of mid-June flooding in Allegheny, Erie and Westmoreland counties.

The denial, which was announced Friday, has left local officials scrambling to figure out how to pay for repairs to roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

They're also concerned about where they'll find money to help residents, some of whom are still without furnaces as fall weather approaches.

"Our budgets just can't withstand that," said Stella Rebitch, the city clerk for Jeannette.

Storms on June 17 dropped up to 4 inches of rain in a few hours in parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, overloading streams and creeks designed to deal with about half that amount of rain. It was the worst flooding Jeannette has seen in more than a century.

Gov. Ed Rendell applied for FEMA assistance for individual residents, business owners and property owners shortly after the flooding. The assistance would have included temporary housing, low-interest loans and grants to help individuals with flood repairs.

But FEMA denied that request July 17, telling the state that "the damage was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the commonwealth, affected local governments and voluntary agencies."

Later, the state appealed the denial and applied for FEMA dollars to help local governments with repairs for infrastructure damage.

Though the state tallied $16.7 million worth of damage from the same mid-June storm system, FEMA also turned down that request in Friday's denial. In a letter addressed to the governor, FEMA administrator W. Craig Fugate wrote "we reaffirm our original findings that supplemental federal assistance is not necessary or appropriate."

Now the state has said it will help individuals apply for loans through the federal Small Business Administration, which can assist flood victims.

But this is little relief to small cities such as Jeannette, which racked up more than a half-million dollars' worth of damage. That city's annual budget is just $4.3 million.

Jeannette has already shelled out money for some of the repairs, and the rest will come in the following year.

Ms. Rebitch said she was scrambling to figure out how her city would make it to the end of the year.

"There's not much we can do other than try to cut costs," she said. "It's just mind-boggling to think, 'Oh, my God, where am I going to get this money?' "

Ms. Rebitch said Jeannette would likely have to put off all of the road projects it had planned for the next year and take care of more immediate flood repairs first.

But as much as she's worried for that city's budget, she is more concerned about residents who may be without furnaces and hot water heaters. Many of those appliances were damaged in flooded-out basements.

In the flood's aftermath, charity organizations such as St. Vincent DePaul and the Salvation Army were able to help residents. But Ms. Rebitch worries they'd been stretched thin.

"The city's doing bad enough ... [but for] the poor resident who may be living on [$600 or $700] income a month, I mean, that's devastating."