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After Flooding, Ohio Receiving Help From U.S. Small Business Administration

Baby cows outside the Kocher farm.
Olivia Miltner
/
WOSU
Baby cows outside the Kocher farm.

The U.S. Small Business Administration announced it will give loans to organizations impacted by excessiverain and flooding in Ohio.

The Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available to small businesses, agricultural cooperatives and private nonprofits in nine counties: Athens, Coshocton, Guernsey, Licking, Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, Perry and Washington.

The loans mirror a different program for farmers overseen by the USDA, which assists farm-related and nonfarm-related entities that were impacted by the weather.

The money is meant to help operations that suffered financially as a direct result of the abnormal weather. Ohio recorded its rainiest year on record, and Columbus has gotten even more precipitation this year than the notoriously rainy city of Seattle.

The loan amount can be up to $2 million with terms of up to 30 years. Money can be used to pay fixed debt and bills that would have been paid if it had not flooded in January or February.

The Small Business Administration will select loan recipients based on the size of the applicant, the activity it performs and its existing financial resources.

Completed loan applications are due in February next year.

Adora Namigadde was a reporter for 89.7 NPR News. She joined WOSU News in February 2017. A Michigan native, she graduated from Wayne State University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in French.