SBA Approves Over $1 Million for Drought Victims in Georgia

ATLANTA, Dec 03, 2007 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- SBCO | charts | news | PowerRating -- The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved more than $1 million in Disaster Assistance Loans for business owners in Georgia affected by the ongoing declared disaster for drought beginning January 1, 2007 and continuing.

According to Frank Skaggs, Director of Field Operations Center East, "We are beginning to receive applications for the current disaster declaration. To date four business disaster loans have been approved in the amount of $1,026,200 for affected victims."

The interest rates for these loans are 4 percent, with terms up to 30 years. Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) are available to small businesses unable to pay bills or meet operating expenses because of the disaster with loan limits up to $1.5 million. Actual terms are set by the SBA, and are based on each applicant's financial condition.

Under this declaration, SBA's EIDL program is available to farm-related and nonfarm-related small business concerns and small agricultural cooperatives that suffered financial losses as a direct result of this disaster. Farmers and ranchers are not eligible to apply to the SBA. Nurseries are eligible to apply for economic injury disaster loans for losses caused by drought conditions.

"SBA can help businesses affected by the drought overcome their economic injuries by offering these working capital loans, but the help cannot start until they submit an SBA Disaster Loan application to us," said Skaggs.

Program information is available by calling the SBA Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955 (1-800-877-8339 for the hearing-impaired); Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. EST. Business loan applications can also be downloaded from the SBA website at www.sba.gov. Completed applications may be mailed to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Ft. Worth, TX 76155.

The deadline to return economic injury applications is March 27, 2008.

For more information about the SBA's Disaster Loan Programs, visit our website at www.sba.gov

SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration

http://www.sba.gov

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