ROGERS, Ark. — The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) discussed recovery efforts with small business owners and community leaders in Rogers on Thursday.
Congressman Steve Womack welcomed U.S. SBA Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman to Northwest Arkansas. The meeting nearly didn't happen after the administrator missed her flight, but instead of canceling, Casillas Guzman said she took a lone flight without her detail through Dallas for the trip.
The SBA Administrator held a roundtable with small business owners, attended a FEMA briefing, and discussed recovery efforts with community leaders. Small businesses said they faced many issues on the road to recovery, describing them as being on pause.
The Sanchez family attended the roundtable as their business 'La Popular' tortilleria and bakery closed from the storm damage. Daniel Sanchez explained that his father had gone in to open the store, like any of the seven days they're open, but quickly realized what had happened.
"He called and said, 'Hey, we're not opening our doors today. Store is not going to be open for a while.' So we went in person to see what's going on. And what impacted me the most is that was probably the first time I saw my dad tear up and cry," Daniel said.
Other business owners shared the sentiment, saying they'd lost their livelihoods in the Memorial Day weekend tornadoes. While many cities are back up and running, small businesses continue to rebuild or even struggle to find a way back.
"We have so much machinery that's in place that we just have to wait for them to fix our building to be able to get back and running," Daniel said.
Darlene and Terry Fleeman said the storms had also destroyed their dream business, Gathered Goods, which had been open for six years in Rogers.
"People ask me, you know, 'What do you feel like when you're seeing all this?' like I'm back in Haiti, you know? You don't know when the power is going to come on. You don't know where you're going to get your next drink of water from, or even a bite of food," Terry said.
"We have been looking for land to build on, but it's prohibitive because of the cost of land in this area, and we can't find another building that's big enough or that the lease price is something that we can afford to make that work. So we are, we are really just on pause right now," Darlene said.
Guzman said the SBA has funded 156 loans with $12.8 million in the community. She explained that they've had good performance, with a 60% approval rate for applicants. Yet, they're not done helping. The SBA has extended the deadline for business physical disaster loans to August 28 and the economic injury disaster loan to March 3.
"Small businesses are the ones that create local jobs. They define our neighborhoods, and we want to make sure that they have the technical assistance that they need to rebuild," Guzman said.
"We know there's going to be disruption for quite some time, and that's important. Just... you know we're here to help. We're here to help all of those small businesses and individuals get through this," she said.
Despite the challenges they face, small business owners said they're ready for the day they can reopen their doors with the help of their community and government.
"We have received a lot of support and help from many people, for which we're very thankful because we don't feel alone," Estela Sanchez said.
"We'd like to ask patience from our clients. We miss you, we love you and are confident that we will return," Jaime Sanchez said.
Guzman also reminded the community that this could be a time to prepare for any future disasters. The SBA offers mitigation assistance that could increase disaster loans by 20% for building upgrades.
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