Losses linger after Sandy
By Kathleen Lynn, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The New York Fed surveyed 950 companies, including nearly 200 in
The losses came from decreased customer demand, utility or service disruption, and damage to assets.
Half of the businesses covered their storm-related losses with personal resources, the survey found. And about 40 percent increased their debt to deal with their losses.
Twenty-two percent of the companies reporting losses said they lost more than
Food importer JJ&K Distributors of
Owner
That hasn't been enough to pay the debts she ran up after Sandy, Ruschke said. And she has had to cut her full-time staff, from 11 workers to six. She's still paying on loans for some of the machinery that was destroyed.
"Thank God one of my biggest suppliers has been kind of carrying me," she said. The supplier is giving her products on credit, she explained.
She applied for a federal
Ruschke estimates that it will be three more years until her business fully recovers from the storm.
"You've got to do what you've got to do," she said. "Until you're in the situation, you don't know what you're capable of."
Only 12 percent of the businesses that suffered Sandy-related losses had flood insurance, according to the New York Fed. And a third of companies with losses said they needed financing to help in meeting their operating expenses.
Eight percent of those surveyed reported financial gains after Sandy; of those, one in four was a construction business. The findings were from an online poll conducted from last
The New York Fed survey focused on businesses with fewer than 500 employees in the counties that were declared federal disaster areas after the storm.
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