NEWPORT – The U.S. Small Business Administration has made low-interest Economic Injury Disaster Loans available to Rhode Island small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses and private nonprofit organizations affected by the Aquidneck Island gas outage from Jan. 21 to Jan 29, the SBA announced Saturday.
The loans became available after Gov. Gina M. Raimondo sent a letter to the SBA, requesting the SBA issue a disaster declaration for the area due to the event.
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The declaration covers Newport County, as well as Bristol County, Kent County, Washington County and Bristol County, Mass.
“The SBA is strongly committed to providing the people of Rhode Island with the most effective and customer-focused response possible to assist small businesses with federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans,” stated SBA Administrator Linda McMahon in prepared remarks. “Getting businesses and communities up and running after a disaster is our highest priority at SBA.”
Eligible entities may qualify for loans of up to $2 million. The rates on the loans are 3.74 percent for small businesses and 2.75 percent for nonprofits, with terms up to 30 years.
The working capital loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that could have been paid had the outage not occurred. The loans are not intended to replace lost profit or sales.
“The SBA can help affected small businesses and nonprofit organizations overcome their economic losses by offering working capital loans, but the help cannot start until they submit an SBA disaster loan application to us,” said SBA’s Rhode Island District Director Mark S. Hayward in a statement.
The deadline to submit applications is Nov. 15, 2019.
Applicants may apply online at DisasterLoan.sba.gov.
