So did Valdosta veterinarian Jeff Creamer, Hawkinsville real estate and golf course developer Larry Dunaway, and hundreds of other Georgia entrepreneurs whose businesses range from restaurant franchises to independent beauty salons—all far removed from the devastating attacks of four years ago this Sunday.

While some businesses at New York's Ground Zero were turned down for the loans, 303 businesses in Georgia won more than $108 million in low-interest, low-cost government loans aimed at helping those impacted by the attacks, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Nationally, nearly $4.9 billion in terror recovery loans were provided or guaranteed to 19,000 businesses by the Small Business Administration.

The agency said it first learned of the problems through a national review of the records by AP and vowed to conduct an investigation if needed. Officials conceded the SBA allocated few resources to oversee the congressionally approved loan program, leaving banks on an honor system to determine who should get Sept. 11 recovery loans.

SBA documents obtained by AP show the banks had a strong incentive to approve as many loans as possible from the terror program—their costs were reduced in half. And several times the government loosened requirement to get more loans into the marketplace despite Congress' requirement that businesses show they were directly or indirectly hurt by the Sept. 11 attacks.

Ultimately, it was left to lenders to determine how loan applicants were adversely affected and to keep a record of that finding in their files. The documentation did not have to be reviewed by the SBA.

The list of Georgia loan recipients was surprising to University of Georgia economist Jeffrey Humphreys.

"I would have felt the legislation should have been written more narrowly and the burden of proof for 9-11 impact should have been a little higher," he said.

Still, Humphreys was not critical. "You could argue that almost every business was hit in the sense that the recession was deeper here in Georgia than it was nationally," he said. "How much of it was due to 9-11 and how much was due to the dot-com bust, we'll never know, but 9-11 was probably the trigger. I suspect that's why this umbrella got to be so broad."

Herrington, who operates a Kids R Kids franchise day care center in Stockbridge, just south of Atlanta, said the $1.3 million loan she got was "not for disaster relief. It didn't have anything to do with the disaster."

"This was to buy our mortgage back. It helped me stay in business because rising interest rates were not favorable," she said.

Still, government records show her loan is part of the STAR program, specifically aimed at businesses hurt by 9-11.

In Valdosta, veterinarian Creamer said his $1.5 million loan was warranted.

"You would not think a veterinary practice in south Georgia would be that impacted. I certainly did not expect to be, not nearly to the degree we were."

He explained that travel suddenly declined as people stayed close to their homes. That affected the fees he got from boarding pets and from performing other services—shots, nail clipping and the like—that people tend to have done to their pets while they are being boarded.

The loan, he said, "helped us dramatically," but he added it took his practice 18 months to two years to recover.

Hawkinsville developer Dunaway got a $1.8 million loan to help build infrastructure and roads. What was the impact of 9-11 on a golf course and subdivision developer?

"We're 20 miles from Robins Air Force Base. No one knew where they would be deployed or how long they were going to be gone. I counted on them to use the golf course and the service that goes with it," he said.

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