When a landslide blocked all road access to the neighborhood of Lowell Point, just south of Seward, final spring, it hit companies challenging. Now, the deadline is approaching for these companies to apply for a loan from the Little Enterprise Administration to enable offset the financial impacts of the landslide.

The loans, known as Financial Injury Disaster loans, can be up to $two million, and can go to any little non-farm companies or nonprofits. There’s a loan interest price of about two.935% for company and 1.875% for nonprofits.

1 company that is applying for the loan is Miller’s Landing in Lowell Point — a campground, fishing charter company and occasion space.

In the spring of 2022, co-owner Likelihood Miller was gearing up for a significant summer season.

“We had a incredibly productive year in 2021, and so going into 2022, we wanted to be prepared for it. We hired a distinctive management group, we restructured, we produced significant investments,” he stated. “And then we had the landslide occur.”

Miller stated the organization lost in between $500 and $600 thousand as a outcome of the landslide.

Even right after the road partially reopened just prior to Memorial Day and completely reopened mid-June, a lot of guests have been just as well anxious to make the trip out. He stated signage and the visible harm to the hillside didn’t enable.

“People are nervous,” he stated. “The story’s nevertheless fresh in people’s minds.”

Miller’s Landing began providing a cost-free water taxi service to get persons to and from Lowell Point whilst the road was closed. And whilst it kept their 40 staff busy, it didn’t bring in any cash.

Sooner or later, Miller stated, the state paid the organization about $one hundred thousand for the service. Nonetheless, it was a challenging summer season. He described this previous fall as the tightest season in far more than 40 years of company.

“It does not look like significantly, but when you have a 90 day season, one hundred day season, and you drop 30 days of it, that is a significant deal,” he stated. “And it straight relates to our bottom line.”

Miller stated that whilst he is applying for the SBA loan, he hopes he’ll in no way in fact have to commit the cash. But he desires to be far more protected than sorry if some thing devastating occurs once again.

The application is due April 12.

According to the SBA, federal disaster loans are out there in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Kodiak Island Borough, Lake and Peninsula Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the Municipality of Anchorage. You can stop by https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/ to apply.