Small Business Administration receives funding for hurricane relief loans

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — The Small Business Administration (SBA) is now allocating hurricane relief loans again after roughly two months without funding.

“I haven’t seen the money yet, so until then, I’ll just hang in there and believe it’s coming,” said George Lewis, who owns Leverock’s Great Seafood Restaurant.

Lewis said he’s been waiting for his small business loan for a long time.

“It’s been a hard couple of months, but you get through it,” Lewis said.

He applied for a hurricane relief loan from the SBA back in October after Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

However, the administration ran out of funding for about two months.

“What was going on in my head at the time was to go to the bank and take personal funds to pay the bills and keep things going,” Lewis said.

On Dec. 21, congress approved roughly $2 billion for more loans.

“It’ll help them recover,” Lewis said of businesses waiting for relief from the SBA. “It’s easy to see that a lot of restaurants and other businesses had major losses. This will help them get some inventory in, fix things up, and get back into shape so they can be productive again.”

Lewis said he will use the loan to repair electrical and roof issues his restaurant suffered from the hurricanes.

“The economic damage is the other part that hurts the most after being closed for weeks,” he said.

Dawn LeBlanc works at Lori’s Soap and Sponge Market. She said the lack of tourism has been the most difficult part.

“Being down for two months was not good,” LeBlanc said. “It’s going to take a little bit of time before everyone recoups.”

Both the soap market and the seafood restaurant are now back open and running.

Until the SBA loans are distributed, Lewis said local support is helping.

“We’ve been through hard times before, and we will do it again,” he said. “We will survive this.”