HARTFORD, Tenn. — The town of Hartford is built upon the backs of the river rafting industry. However, the future of that industry is up in the air after flooding from Helene destroyed many businesses along the Pigeon River.
"The rafting industry is what Hartford is," Jon Felderman, owner of Big Creek Expeditions, said. "More than 90% of this property was covered underwater."
Now he turns to rebuilding the business he calls home.
"The best we can hope for is that everybody comes back and goes rafting," Felderman said.
The rafting industry in Hartford will change as the floods have permanently impacted the river.
"The river is always changing with whatever water flows happen," he said. "We've never seen anything like this."
Another small business owner in Hartford is in the community continuing the rebuilding process. Michelle Cuellar has owned The Bean Trees Cafe for 21 years. Her business suffered extensive damages from the floods.
"We had to completely gut my entire cafe, everything had to go," Cuellar said. "To see it all gone in one day, it was numbing at first. I held strong until about day four and I think the reality hit and I had a very emotional day."
Now, her business relies on the help of volunteers to recover but she hopes they can all get some guidance on how to get the funding they need.
"We just really need an advocate that can come up here and maybe have a meeting with all of us and help us figure out how to get grants and loans and at a low interest rate and help us out," she said.
The Small Business Administration is on the ground in Tennessee. They said help is available online on their website.
SBA asks the public to report all disaster damages to local or county emergency management authorities. They add survivors will need their cell phone, contact information, social security numbers, financial information such as monthly income and insurance information, if available, when applying for assistance.
The SBA is offering low-interest loans for those impacted by the floods. According to the administration, the following loan amounts are available.
- Homeowners – Up to $500k (real estate/refinance/mitigation/contractor malfeasance)
- Personal Property – Up to $100k for homeowners and renters including one personal vehicle
- Businesses – Up to $2M (including real estate/equipment/machinery/inventory/working capital)
- Mitigation – Up to 20% of the verified loss (a physical property disaster loan is required)
You can find more information online now on their website.