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>> Before a disaster hits, a business should have a well-
thought-out disaster preparedness plan in place
where they have identified their critical operation needs
and taken measures to protect those against a disaster.
A business should also have a planned escape route,
and all the employees and staff should know
where the planned meeting places are.
>> Implement drills maybe once a year,
maybe twice a year, depending upon geographically
if they're more prone
to hurricanes, doing a drill before hurricane season,
if they're more prone to tornadoes, for example,
doing it during the tornado season.
So the preparedness plan is key for that business to recover,
and not only that, but to implement it
and to drill it and to practice it.
>> They should also have a recovery plan in place.
Hopefully, they have a person or spokesperson identified
to lead their communications
where they can notify their customers, their vendors,
their employees, as to the status of the business -
is the business open and operational, has it relocated,
is it going to be reopening soon, things of that nature.
One example of what a business would do
to assess their operations is, what piece of machinery
or equipment could they not do without?
What do they absolutely need in order to keep
that business running?
Another way is to assess their insurance.
What insurance coverage do they have,
and more importantly, what's not covered?
They should also look at having business interruption insurance
which could compensate them for any period of time
that they may be closed.
The best thing that a business could do to properly prepare
for a disaster is to backup all of their copies
and have them someplace safe, protected against a disaster.
After a disaster they may be asked to use those things
in order to apply for various forms of disaster assistance.
It's a good idea for businesses
to have a post-disaster communication strategy,
to designate somebody as their spokesperson,
to let their customers and the community know
that their business is still open and running
or when they plan to reopen.
That way people don't think that they've closed down
or are out of business.
The SBA Disaster Loan Program is really the primary source
of financial assistance from the Federal government
after a disaster.
For any area that's part of a disaster declaration,
the SBA offers low-interest Disaster Loan programs
to homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes,
and private and nonprofit organizations.
If a business is shut down or just business has dropped,
and they still have their normal operating expenses, like payroll,
maybe the lease for the building that they're
in, whatever the expenses might be for that business,
the Working Capital Loan can help pay
for those during the recovery period until business is back up
and running normal again.
Don't wait for your insurance settlement
to be finalized before you apply for SBA.
It's always best to know what's available to you,
and the only way to do that is to complete the SBA application.
The SBA can make disbursements
on an approved disaster loan before the insurance settles.
And what we do is afterwards if the insurance does settle,
and we determine that there's a duplication
in benefits, we can go back and adjust the balance
of the loan later on by applying the insurance settlement
to the loan.
There are three main ways that individuals can apply.
They can go into any field office
which might be a Disaster Recovery Center
or an SBA-run Disaster Loan Outreach Center.
They can mail in their application,
or they can go online to our Website
and do one online electronically.
The main thing that distinguishes the SBA
from other types of loans is our lower interest, also the terms.
We can go out to a maximum of 30 years
which helps keep the payments low.
We also have, in most cases the first payment will be deferred
and since it is a Disaster Loan Program direct
from the Federal government, we don't have any application fees,
any points, or prepayment penalties.
Any applicant must have satisfactory credit, according
to the SBA, and then also be able to repay the loan.
After an applicant fills out the SBA disaster loan application
and they send it in to us, we'll review it for completeness
and usually after that step, one
of our loss verifiers will make an appointment
with the applicant to assess the property damage.
After that, after we come up with a dollar amount
of what it's gonna cost to make the repairs
or to replace the personal property damage, it then goes
to a loan officer to review to see
if they qualify for the loan.
If they do qualify for the loan, it then goes
to our legal department who begins the process
of making disbursements.
Once we notify an applicant that they have been approved
for an SBA disaster loan and they accept the terms
and conditions, we'll then make an initial disbursement
and ask them to provide us with receipts
or contractors' estimates
of what it's gonna cost to make the repairs.
Once we start receiving those,
then we'll make further disbursements,
kind of like a construction loan.
We try to make decisions on all applications within 21 days
from the time we receive the application,
and make the first disbursement within five days
from the time the loan closing documents are signed.
>> Businesses can also work with our resource partners,
which are SCORE and our Small Business Development
Centers, along with the Disaster Office,
to help them recover through any disaster.