COCKE COUNTY, Tenn. — The Small Business Administration announced Wednesday that disaster loans were paused. The administration had warned that funds would run out as demand increased following Hurricane Helene.
The SBA's website said they must wait until Congress is back in session to approve more funding. This means small business owners affected by Helene have to wait for their loans to be approved.
The owners of Snowbird Mountain Coffee Company, Corey and Melissa Ackerman, can't afford to wait. While they were able to reopen their business quickly, their ice cream shop across the street will remain closed.
"That business took so much more damage than we did over here," Melissa said. "And we have no assistance. We have no help with that and it's sitting in a shell across the street because we don't have any way of getting it back open right now. So, while Snowbird was able to get back open after 10 days, I had to lay people off across the street."
The Ackermans said they've received support from city leaders, the community and people from other states but it's not enough.
"We just need that little bit of help from an SBA loan or something to get the rest of the way and right now there's no avenue to do that," Corey said.
SBA said they have gotten over 37,000 applications for disaster loans regarding Helene. So far, they have sent 700 loan offers totaling about $48 million.
Once Congress meets in November, SBA said businesses could be eligible for up to $2 million for physical and economic damages.
The Ackermans said that it's important to remember even once they can reopen, their customer base will have changed as I-40 connecting Tennessee and North Carolina is still closed.
"I heard it's closed indefinitely," Corey said. "What that does to this town and the entire county that's 52,000 cars a day that drive within a mile and a half of this downtown that we don't have access to."
WBIR reached out to the SBA for comment but they did not respond in time for this article.