SEDRO-WOOLLEY — Disaster relief officials knocking on doors in the Summer Meadows neighborhood Monday had a message for residents: Flood damage can sneak up on you, even months after the waters recede.

Dale Hastin of the state Emergency Management Division and Peter Kaurup of the Federal Emergency Management Agency urged residents to register for disaster assistance even if they didn’t have obvious damage from the January flood.

They advised an elderly homeowner on Summer Meadows Court to be alert for breathing problems, which could signal the advance of mold or mildew beneath flooring or in the crawlspace.

Kaurup asked another resident if he was worried about mold or mildew.

“No, not until the summer,” the man said.

Resident Frank Wagner said the water didn’t reach his home, although it did form a pond 18 inches deep in his backyard. It was the first flood Wagner had seen in his 11 years in the neighborhood. A drainage ditch along Highway 9 overflowed, he said, and the water stuck around for four and a half days.

That much water in the yard can damage a home’s foundation later, Kaurup said. He and Hastin gave Wagner several papers explaining how to register for assistance.

Wagner was struck by the irony of a flood on the north end of Sedro-Woolley after having moved out of low-lying Hamilton.

“(Flooding) was an every-year deal” in Hamilton, he said. “When we got out of there, I thought I’d never have to deal with it again.”

The damage in Summer Meadows was typical of the Jan. 6 flood. The Skagit River mostly stayed within its banks. Smaller streams and drainages took the brunt of the heavy rains and melting snow. The Concrete area, meanwhile, had another problem altogether — flowing mud.

Hastin has been knocking on doors since Feb. 8 with only one day off since then. She’s been to Anacortes, Marblemount and most points in between.

“It’s widespread, and it’s all different kinds of damage,” Hastin said.

As of Saturday, 76 Skagit County residents had registered for disaster assistance. In Whatcom County, 197 had registered. In Snohomish County, where the major rivers flooded extensively, 278 residents had registered.

FEMA opened a Disaster Recovery Center at Sedro-Woolley City Hall on Monday to assist Skagit County victims with registration or with loan applications to the Small Business Administration.

Hastin and Kaurup told residents in Summer Meadows to fill out a loan application with the SBA in order to qualify for FEMA help, which comes in the form of grants that don’t need to be repaid.

The SBA offers loans with a 2.7 percent interest rate for homeowners with flood or mudslide damage if they don’t qualify for a private loan. The SBA loan can be used to cover the deductible on an insurance policy or any damage not covered by insurance.

The SBA’s role is not as widely known as FEMA’s but is perhaps more vital to homeowners needing money after storm damage, FEMA spokesman Jack Heesch said.

“In the end, the SBA puts more money into the recovery effort than FEMA,” Heesch said.

Summer Meadows resident Cindy Sakshaug didn’t want to apply for the loan, even though she can barely heat the first floor of her home. The flexible heating ducts underneath her floorboards had become saturated in last month’s flood.

Sakshaug watched her neighbor spend $1,600 to replace flood-damaged heating ducts. She knew of FEMA’s assistance offer but chose not to register because she believed the interest rate on the loan was much higher.

Before Monday, only three residents in the neighborhood had registered with FEMA. Hastin and Kaurup had planned to canvas just a handful of homes to spread the word about the assistance options.

When they learned the damage in the neighborhood was extensive — one resident said every crawlspace in the neighborhood flooded — Hastin and Kaurup realized they would need to knock on many more doors in the 40-home subdivision.

As Hastin told one resident after warning him about the dangers of mold and mildew, “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Help for flood victims

• Register with FEMA by March 31 at 1-800-621-FEMA or http://www.disasterassistance.gov.

• Fill out a loan application by March 31 with the Small Business Administration at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela.

• To get help with an SBA loan or learn more from FEMA, visit the Disaster Recovery Center at Sedro-Woolley City Hall, 325 Metcalf St. Hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Thursday.