Posted on: Saturday, July 24, 2004

Disaster loans only for ag-related loss

Associated Press

Federal low-interest disaster loans for small businesses that suffered losses because of severe weather are not available to the businesses near Honolulu Airport that were flooded last December, officials said yesterday.

The Small Business Administration said this week that nonfarm businesses on O'ahu, Maui, Lana'i, Moloka'i and the Big Island were eligible for the loans if they lost sales and services to farmers and ranchers hit by heavy rains, high winds and flooding from Dec. 7 to March 26.

Only agriculture-related businesses are eligible for the loans.

That means the businesses in Mapunapuna near Honolulu Airport and some residential neighborhoods that were flooded during the December rain are not eligible, according to Ray Lovell, spokesman for state Civil Defense.

"These loans are not for the storm damage but for the economic losses caused by the loss of revenue to the farmers and ranchers," said Karl Whittington, a spokesman for the SBA in Sacramento, Calif. "They have to tie their loss to the lack of income to farmers and ranches."