Katie Wonnenberg to Scripps News: Small business owners facing 'double whammy' amid Hurricane Helene cleanup

Scripps News: Small business owners facing 'double whammy' amid Hurricane Helene cleanup

October 4, 2024

By Scripps News Staff

Katie Vlietstra Wonnenberg, a small business advocate and political strategist, said it is going to take a significant amount of time to finish the cleanup, no matter how hard the federal government works. “This is going to take, unfortunately, a lot of time,” she said. “But I do think we have the resources and the manpower to get to those citizens and support them during this terrible crisis.”

One issue is the recovery could be costly for the federal government at a time Congress has struggled to keep the government open. Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, however, have contended that there are enough funds to provide immediate disaster relief and are encouraging individuals and businesses to apply for assistance.

“There's a double whammy,” Wonnenberg said. “You have businesses in Asheville who have been decimated. They also have homes that have been decimated. And as you probably know from your own reporting, many of these homes do not have flood insurance. They're going to have to rely on programs both at FEMA and the Small Business Administration, not to just rebuild their businesses, but rebuild their homes. And so our ability to ensure that the federal funds are available to do so, that the manpower is there to quickly assess the damage that has been done both to business and homes, is really important.”

Read the full story here on ScrippsNews.com.