SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — The Small Business Administration (SBA) is stepping in to offer small business owners a hand in the wake of Hurricane Helene by opening up business recovery centers in affected communities.
“I really feel like my first couple weeks open; I wasn’t running a business. I was managing crises,” Becca Goossen, owner of Savannah grocery store GoodFortune, said.
Goossen opened up GoodFortune just a couple of months ago, but things haven’t exactly gone to plan since then.
“We opened up on a Friday, and by Sunday, we were sandbagging, getting ready for Hurricane Debbie, “Goossen said. “So, technically, my first week being open, I was closed. We had some infrastructure problems here. We had a pipe burst that filled our entire store up with water and also filled up the neighboring two businesses. Then, the following weekend after that was Hurricane Helene.”
GoodFortune has lost power more than once since it opened.
“Having a cooler go out for four to five hours renders those products unusable based on food-borne illnesses or the spread of viruses,” Goossen said.