After Ida, small businesses face uncertainty on many fronts

NEW YORK (AP) — A week or more after Ida, business owners from Louisiana to Connecticut are still adding up the financial losses and assessing the physical and emotional toll, grappling to find a way forward.

Many say it’s difficult to figure out the future when they’re unsure of the answers to some immediate questions: When will the power come back on? How long before I get new supplies? When can my business be rebuilt?

“There’s no more anxious situation to a business owner than a complete lack of clarity in how to plan,” said Pike Howard, director of finance and development for New Orleans-based Felipe’s Mexican Taqueria restaurants. Many businesses have already dealt with a long stretch of uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The amount that we’ve been tested the past 18 to 24 months it’s hard to imagine the roller coaster,” Howard said. “If you didn’t have a cash reserve going into this situation, I don’t know what you would do.”

Some help is being made available. On Monday, President Joe Biden approved major disaster declarations for six New Jersey counties and five New York counties. That follows similar announcements for Mississippi and Louisiana, the initial targets of the hurricane.

Disaster declarations are key for small businesses because that opens the door for federal disaster assistance loans.

By Wednesday evening, crews in Louisiana had restored power to nearly 90% of New Orleans and all of Baton Rouge. But hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Louisiana, most of them outside New Orleans, still don’t have power. And about half of the gas stations in two major cities were without fuel as of Wednesday.

Rebuilding from storm damage will be a challenge. Building contractors were already facing worker shortages and supply constraints....