By Lexi Schimelfenig
Intern
Businesses in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach that were impacted by the high waters and flooding that hit New Hanover County while Hurricane Joaquin churned offshore may be eligible for federal Small Business Administration (SBA) loans.
The agency announced in late October that businesses in New Hanover County were among those in North Carolina that could apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans if they suffered damages from rain and flooding from Sept. 22 – Oct. 4.
The loans are available to businesses and nonprofit organizations, as well as home owners and renters, the SBA said. The loans can be for physical damages that the occurred as a result of the flooding, or for economic damages from lost business, said Jay MacKenna, SBA public affairs specialist.
SBA loans can be for as much as $2 million, with interest rates of 2.625 percent for nonprofits and 4 percent for small businesses. The amount necessary is determined by the SBA, MacKenna said.
The loans could help several Wrightsville Beach businesses recover losses from the torrential rain storms that occurred near the end of the tourist season, said hotel lobbyist Sue Bulluck, who also chairs the Wrightsville Beach Chamber of Commerce.
“The particular weekend of the hurricane threat, at least two of our hotels lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in one weekend as a result of needing cancellations because of the weather warnings,” Bulluck said. “While those warnings are preemptive and we had high tides and we had flooding, it did not physically damage the hotels; however, it damaged the bottom line from the actual revenue that was cancelled by leaving groups.”
Eligibility for the loan is based on the size of the applicant, type of activity, and its financial resources, the SBA said. The loans themselves are not a substitute for profits, the SBA said, however, they can be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that were affected by the disaster.
“These are often overlooked by officials when they are looking at damages,” Bulluck said. “But these are true damages because those will come back as a negative revenue stream to the towns based on their room occupancy tax, and $100,000 in revenue loss is $6,000 in room occupancy tax that the town doesn’t receive.”
MacKenna said everyone is encouraged to apply for a loan.
“They don’t have to take the loan if they don’t wish, but it is an opportunity to see what options would be available for them to recover from the disaster damages they may have had because of the flooding last month and we would like to encourage everyone to apply and we will help as many people as we possibly can,” he said.
To qualify, businesses must be small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture or a non-profit organization in select NC counties. To apply, use the Electronic Loan Application at https://disasterlan.sba.gov/ela.
