Business owners in Parkersburg face long road
It's a setback, but the couple is ready to start over and was among more than 50 people who attended a meeting on disaster assistance for businesses Friday afternoon.
Like the others who listened to presentations from the University of Northern Iowa Regional Business Center/Small Business Development Center, the federal Small Business Administration, Butler County Development and the Greater Cedar Valley Alliance, the Luhrings have had nearly a week to count their losses — Luhring Monument, iwireless, Star Land TV and Luhring Nursery.
On Friday they were counting their blessings.
"We're alive, our whole family is alive," said Marty Luhring as she and her husband left the meeting to get back to work. "We're going to rebuild."
That decision has not come as quickly for many who attended the meeting that was marked by tears, at times, anger, but mostly frustration.
Tyann Lester, a part owner of the Pizza Ranch along the highway, wants to rebuild. The decision will depend largely on her partner, their bank and their insurance, she said.
"That's my baby," she said about her restaurant of four years. "It's something I'm good at. I want it back."
They all want to stay, Parkersburg economic development director Virgil Goodrich said about the businesses damaged by the tornado. "The question is whether they can, economically," he said.
"One of the hardest things we're dealing with is this is a very rural community and most of our businesses in rural regions are small and they don't always have the capacity, financial or otherwise, to withstand these kinds of disasters," said Maureen Collins-Williams, director of the Small Business Development Center.
Much of the assistance SBDC offers is basic, she said. Consultants work with business people to put together loan packages to be submitted to the Small Business Administration (SBA). They assist with projections on how businesses can weather reduced sales or no sales at all. They'll help businesses deal with organizational and management issues, such as the loss of employees or taking care of employees who suddenly have no jobs and no paychecks.
That is one reason why Bill Koontz, an SBA disaster relief spokesman who spoke at the meeting, encouraged everyone to apply for assistance whether they thought the SBA could help or not.
There's also assistance for people like Sharri Claassen of the Flower Cart, which wasn't in the path of the tornado. She lost her entire inventory when power to the storage coolers was lost for three days. She expects to lose a lot of business in the coming months.
"With half the town gone, and who knows for how long, no one is going to be ordering flowers," said Claassen, who has operated the shop for seven years.
Claassen isn't alone, Collins-Williams said.
"There are a huge number of businesses, not just in Parkersburg, but all the way through Dunkerton, that did not sustain physical damage, but over the next several months they will face a lot of problems with sales, with suppliers, with meeting deadlines as a result of communications and supply chains being disrupted," she said.
"We think that's where a lot of our work will come into play, in helping those businesses hang in there during this period that can last up to a year and longer.
"That's almost as deadly in some cases as the disaster for those who lost everything."
The SBDC can be contacted by calling (319) 236-8123.
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