While Emily Johnston’s husband began gutting Production Specialties, the couple’s machine shop in Baton Rouge that was ravaged by more than five feet of water over the weekend, she went to the Walker Business Recovery Center this morning in search of financial help.
Small Business Administration officials opened the center today to give homeowners and business owners direction on loans for physical damage and economic injury. For most businesses, the loan limit is $2 million.
The Johnstons’ machine shop, which they have owned for 10 years, was devastated by the floods. Nearly all of their equipment took on water, Emily Johnston says, and they have few options for financial help, with no insurance money coming to cover their losses.
“We don’t like asking for help, but we need whatever we can get,” she says. “We’ve busted our butts. And now everything we have is gone.”
Now she plans on taking out a $400,000 disaster loan provided by the SBA.
Businesses and nonprofit organizations of all size are eligible for loans in the parishes hit by flooding. Economic injury loans, which help augment lost business from the floods, are also available.
“I know a lot of businesses are hurting and saying, ‘I can’t afford a loan,’” says SBA Public Information Officer Cynthia Cowell. “But don’t cut yourself out. Let us make that decision.”
Cowell urges businesses and homeowners to register with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, even though businesses are not offered financial help through the administration, and to file insurance claims.
SBA offers a 4% interest rate on loans to businesses who have no credit available elsewhere. The rate for businesses that have other options is 6.25%. And, Cowell says, the SBA is “a little less judgy on your credit.”
The center is located in room 101 of the Southeastern Louisiana University Literacy and Technology Center, 9261 Florida Blvd. in Walker. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays until the parish decides it is no longer necessary, Cowell says. No appointment is necessary. All services are provided free of charge.
—Sam Karlin
