If you are a disaster survivor in West Virginia you may not know you can get help from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) that could lead to a smarter, faster recovery for businesses, homeowners, renters or private nonprofits.
The first step is to register with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Once you have done that, both FEMA and SBA encourage you to apply for a low-interest disaster SBA loan to help fund your recovery and to ensure the federal disaster recovery process continues.
An SBA low-interest disaster loan is a primary source of funds for real estate property repairs and for replacing contents destroyed in the severe storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides that occurred June 22-29.
Physical Damage Disaster Loans
Businesses and private nonprofit organizations of any size may borrow up to $2 million to repair or replace disaster damaged or destroyed real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory and other business assets.
If your SBA loan application is approved, you may be eligible to borrow additional funds to cover the cost of improvements that will protect your property against future damage. Examples
include elevating utilities, water heaters and furnaces, and installing retaining walls and sump pumps. Applicants may be eligible for an SBA loan increase, for mitigation purposes, of up to 20 percent of their physical damage.
Interest rates are as low as 4 percent for businesses and 2.625 percent for nonprofit organizations, with terms up to 30 years. Loan amounts and terms are set by the SBA and are based on each applicant’s financial condition.
Economic Injury Disaster Loans
SBA also offers a working capital loan to relieve the economic injury caused by the disaster. A disaster loan is available to eligible businesses as well as private nonprofits even if the property was not damaged by the June storms.
These loans are for small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and certain private nonprofit organizations of all sizes to cover unpaid bills and lost business due to the disaster. Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available in amounts up to $2 million. The total of both physical damage and economic injury loans cannot exceed $2 million.
Eligible counties for both Physical and Economic Injury Disaster Loans
The disaster declaration covers the counties of Clay, Fayette, Greenbrier, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Monroe, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Roane, Summers and Webster in West Virginia, which are eligible for both Physical and Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the SBA.
Eligible counties for Economic Injury Disaster Loans only
Small businesses and most private nonprofit organizations in the following adjacent counties are eligible to apply only for SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans: Boone, Braxton, Cabell, Calhoun, Lewis, Mercer, Logan, Mason, Mingo, Pendleton, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Upshur, Wayne, Wirt and Wood in West Virginia; Alleghany, Bath, Craig and Giles and Highland in Virginia; and Meigs in Ohio.
Deferred Disaster Loan payments
The first payment for a disaster loan is due five months from the date of the SBA note.
Deadlines
The deadline to apply for an SBA Physical Damage loan is Aug. 24, 2016.
The deadline to apply for an SBA Economic Injury Disaster loan is March 27, 2017. You can submit your SBA disaster loan application in one of three ways: online at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/; in person at a Disaster Recovery Center (DRC); or by mail. SBA has staff at all DRCs to provide one-on-one assistance to businesses of all sizes, homeowners and renters in submitting their application.
Do not wait for an insurance settlement before submitting an SBA loan application. You can begin your recovery immediately with a low-interest SBA disaster loan. The loan balance will be reduced by the insurance settlement if you receive one. SBA loans may be available for losses not covered by insurance or other sources.
Remember, you don’t have to accept the loan if you qualify for one.
SBA Disaster Business Recovery Centers (BRCs) help businesses get back on their feet from damage they sustained during the storms. The BRCs are a resource where businesses can meet face-to-face with SBA representatives to learn how a low-interest disaster loan can help them recover. The BRCs are located in Greenbrier, Kanawha and Nicholas counties. To locate a DRC or an SBA BRC, call the SBA Customer Service Center at 800-659-2955.
If you have not registered with FEMA:
- You can apply by calling the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362 or (TTY) 800-462-7585. If you use 711-Relay or Video Relay Services, you should call 800-621-3362. Operators are multilingual and calls are answered from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time seven days a week; or
- You can go online at DisasterAssistance.gov; or
- You can visit a DRC.
Additional information on West Virginia’s disaster recovery can be found by calling the FEMA Helpline 800-621-3362 or visiting: www.DisasterAssistance.gov; the flood pages at www.WVflood.com; fema.gov/disaster/4273; twitter.com/femaregion3; and fema.gov/blog.
