Gov. Bev Perdue today announced that she has secured federal disaster assistance for nine additional counties that suffered losses during Hurricane Irene.

Families and business owners in Wayne and Pender counties can now seek low-interest loans or grants to help them recover from Irene. The additional counties will be added to the federal disaster declaration in North Carolina that Gov. Perdue requested and was approved by President Obama.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides two types of assistance. Individual assistance aids families and businesses, while public assistance helps local governments with community recovery costs, such as clearing debris and repairing public facilities.

Seven additional counties are now eligible for public assistance: Gates, Hertford, Johnston, Northampton, Sampson, Warren and Washington. Those counties can now seek aid covering the costs of storm response, debris removal and infrastructure repairs.

"We will keep aggressively pursuing any assistance we can to help return families to their homes and return businesses to normal operation," Gov. Perdue said.

With today's action, 35 counties have been approved for individual assistance, and 36 counties have been approved for public assistance.

The counties previously approved for individual assistance are: Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Edgecombe, Gates, Greene, Halifax, Hertford, Hyde, Johnston, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, Nash, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrrell, Vance, Warren, Washington and Wilson.

The counties previously approved for public assistance are: Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Columbus, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Halifax, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, Nash, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrrell, Wayne and Wilson.