Hurricane Sandy Update 2: SBA Standing Ready to Help Businesses, Homeowners and Renters Recover

Many business owners, homeowners, and renters along the East Coast are coming back to find physical damage to their buildings and property as a result of Hurricane Sandy.  In addition, thousands of businesses are dealing with the economic blow caused by power outages, damaged inventory, and lost profits from being closed down.

The Small Business Administration stands ready to help.

How does SBA help businesses, homeowners and renters recover? Three main ways:

1. Businesses and nonprofit organizations of any size can apply for a low-interest disaster loan of up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged real estate or inventory.

2. Small businesses and nonprofit organizations of any size can apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, also up to $2 million.  With all of the power outages and evacuations, we know that many small businesses made it through the storm, but they’ve lost significant amounts of business.  In many cases, these businesses will be eligible for EIDL loans to help cover their working capital needs, regardless of whether the business suffered property damage.

3. Finally, homeowners can apply for loans of up to $200,000 to repair damaged real estate.  Homeowners and renters can also apply to borrow up to $40,000 to repair or replace personal property damaged by the storm.  In addition, we can sometimes increase a loan by up to 20 percent to make structural improvements that lessen the risk of property damage by future disasters of the same kind.

Once the disaster declaration is made for your area, there are several ways to apply:

• Apply online at  https://disasterloan.sba.gov
• Visit a Disaster Recovery Center in your area: http://www.fema.gov/disaster-recovery-centers
• For information about the disaster loan process, or to have an application mailed to you, you can either email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov or call 1-800-659-2955. Those who are deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired can call 1-800-877-8339.
• To download an application, go here: www.sba.gov/disaster

As of last night, more than 292,607 disaster survivors from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey have applied for federal disaster assistance, and more than $277 million in Individual Assistance has been approved. 

If you are a survivor, it’s important to take that the first step is to register with FEMA, by calling 1-800-621-FEMA or going online to www.disasterassistance.gov on your computer or mobile device.

Already, we have disaster recovery personnel conducting damage assessments and many more disaster reservists ready to mobilize.  In addition, business owners can get free help completing applications and creating plans to rebuild at our local Small Business Development Centers. To find the location nearest you, visit www.sba.gov/local-assistance.

Our commitment at SBA and throughout the Administration is that we will be there until we get the job done – and we will get it done right. For more about the government-wide response to Sandy, visit www.usa.gov/sandy.

Related

Superstorm Sandy Update: SBA Coordinating with Our Federal Partners

About the Author

James Rivera was named Associate Administrator for SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance in November 2009 after serving for several months as Acting Associate Administrator. In a typical year, his office approves about 20,000 loans totaling about $1 billion. This is the SBA’s sole direct lending program.