Businesses, nonprofits, homeowners and renters in Lewis County now qualify for low-interest federal loans to help economic recovery and physical repairs in response to storms and flooring in December 2025.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) announced Thursday that residents of 19 Washington state counties will be eligible for “federal disaster loans” to address damages that occurred between Dec. 5 and Dec. 22 of last year. Those listed include most of Southwest Washington counties like Lewis, Grays Harbor, Cowlitz, Pacific, Wahkiakum and Thurston. The announcement comes as the SBA has issued an official declaration for the December storms in Washington in response to a request from Gov. Bob Ferguson.
“Through an agency declaration, SBA provides financial assistance to help communities recover,” Chris Stallings, associate administrator of the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience at the SBA, said in a statement. “We offer disaster loans to homeowners, renters, businesses and private nonprofits affected by the disaster.”
Those who qualify are welcome to apply for both loans to address or repair physical damages and others for economic injury, with initial interest rates listed as low as 2.875% for certain loans. Those applying for physical damage loans must submit applications by April 27, and those seeking an economic injury loan must submit applications by Nov. 24.
According to the announcement from the SBA, businesses and nonprofits are eligible to apply for business physical disaster loans of up to $2 million to fund repairs or replacement of real estate, machinery, inventory or other assets that were damaged or destroyed by the December storms. Renters and homeowners are eligible for personal property loans up to $100,000 to replace personal property that is not their home, and homeowners can apply for up to $500,000 for damages to a primary residence.
Certain individuals may even be eligible for a 20% increase in loan value to build mitigation improvements that may help a property sustain less damage in future floods.
Certain small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives and nurseries, and nonprofits are eligible for an economic injury disaster loan. However, most farmers, ranchers or other agricultural producers are not.
The economic loans are available even if a business did not sustain physical damage and, according to the administration, may be used for paying fixed debts, payroll or other bills and expenses not originally due to the disaster.
The announcement from the administration states that interest rates for small businesses may start as low as 4% while rates for private nonprofits could start even lower at 3.625% and those for homeowners lower still at 2.875%. Terms for paying back the loans can be as long as 30 years, and interest will not be applied to a loan for the first year. Individual interest rates depend on each applicant's financial standing.
Residents can also apply for the loans online through the federal website at sba.gov/disaster. Those with questions or seeking one-on-one assistance can call the SBA customer service line at 800-659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.
According to an additional announcement from Lewis County, the Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis will host an in-person disaster loan outreach center that opened at 12 p.m. Thursday. The center set up shop in the basement of the county building on the east side and will be open to answer questions about the disaster loans on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with no posted end date. Those seeking Lewis County specific assistance can also contact the county outreach center by phone at 202-579-8122.
County staff state they are also working on organizing a similar outreach center on the east side of Lewis County to begin operating sometime next week.
