After severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and flooding on Jan. 20 and 21 affected many counties in Mississippi, the U.S. Small Business Administration is offering economic injury disaster loans to businesses and non-profit organizations in Pearl River County.

Although Danny Manley, Pearl River County emergency management director, said there was no property damage in the county, Laurie Dana, SBA public affairs specialist, said businesses could still apply for an economic injury disaster loan.

Many adjacent counties were greatly affected by the natural disasters, which could impact other businesses in the area, Dana said, giving an example of the potential impact in Pearl River County.

“If a business in Pearl River County relies on getting inventory from another company in a different county, but that company was damaged by the tornado, that could greatly affect the operations of both businesses,” she said. “That is just one of many scenarios to explain why we offer this loan.”

If a small business, small agricultural cooperative or private nonprofit organization suffered from substantial economic injury, they are eligible for the loan, according to the SBA news release. This loan provides assistance to businesses regardless of whether or not the business suffered any physical damage, a SBA release states.

Economic injury simply means the business is unable to meet certain obligations in order to fulfill its necessary operating expenses. The Economic injury disaster loan provides necessary capital to cover that operation until working conditions are back to normal. It can provide up to $2 million to provide financial stability and pay operating expenses that could have been met had the disaster not occurred, SBA website states.

“The U.S. Small Business Administration is strongly committed to providing the people of Mississippi with the most effective and customer-focused response possible to assist businesses . . . Getting businesses and communities up and running after a disaster is our highest priority at the SBA,” SBA Mississippi District Director Janita Stewart said in the release.

Small businesses and private nonprofit organizations in the following counties in Mississippi are eligible to apply for an economic injury disaster loan: Clarke, Covington, George, Greene, Jasper, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Kemper, Marion, Neshoba, Newton, Pearl River, Stone and Wayne, according to the SBA release.

The filing deadline is Oct. 25, 2017. For more information about the SBA’s economic disaster loan program, visit the SBA website at www.sba.gov/disaster.