Northwest Indiana residents and small business owners still digging out from a brutal stretch of summer storms will get a chance to connect with repair money, grant applications and federal loan officers at noon on Nov. 5 at Hidden Lake Park in Merrillville. The Black Chamber of Commerce of Northwest Indiana is hosting the event, called From Recovery to Resilience, open to anyone affected by the damage, regardless of whether they own a business or belong to the chamber.
The gathering, reported by the Chicago Tribune, will connect residents, homeowners, renters and small businesses with repair assistance after a summer that brought tornadoes, back-to-back windstorms and an Aug. 11 derecho that left more than 300,000 NIPSCO customers without power for about two weeks. Attendees can get grant application assistance and on-site support from the U.S. Small Business Administration for disaster loan applications, according to the Tribune. The chamber says it has already helped 100 people with SBA applications over the past month, working directly with the agency to walk residents through the process.
A Summer of Overlapping Disasters
The region's troubles began June 11, when multiple tornadoes tore through Northwest Indiana, with some of the worst damage concentrated in Merrillville and Kouts. The National Weather Service confirmed at least 11 tornado touchdowns that day, including an EF-3 in Kouts and an EF-2 in Merrillville, according to CBS News. Weeks later, on July 27, back-to-back storms brought wind damage to Lake and Porter counties, hitting Dyer, Munster, Cedar Lake, Chesterton and Valparaiso.
Then came the derecho on Aug. 11, the most disruptive blow of the season. NIPSCO reported the storm knocked out power to at least 375,000 residents, or roughly 80% of its Northwest Indiana customers, per NBC Chicago. The longest outages stretched across Gary, Lake Station and Portage. More than 4,000 internal and contract crews from 14 states worked to get the lights back on, and the utility said it had restored power to 99% of customers as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, with the remaining gaps tied to damage on privately owned equipment.
Businesses Kept Paying Staff Through the Blackout
Even as outages stretched toward three weeks in some areas, businesses hit by the storm continued paying employees while trying to recover, per the Tribune's reporting. Lois Whittaker, president and CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce of Northwest Indiana, said business owners need to know what help exists for them. “We need to start having those conversations about how we become resilient,” Whittaker said, according to the outlet.
Whittaker said different communities have different needs and priorities, which is why coming together matters. The Nov. 5 event builds on two earlier sessions the chamber ran this month — a Business Disaster Recovery Q&A on Oct. 15 at the Indiana Welcome Center in Hammond, and a second SBA loan application assistance session on Oct. 19 in Crown Point, according to the Chicago Crusader. Those earlier sessions, the Crusader reported, were billed as putting real resources, real experts and real solutions in front of the people who need them most.
Grants and Low-Interest Loans on the Table
Attendees at the Merrillville event can apply for a $5,000 Readiness for Resiliency grant through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the Tribune reported. That program requires applicants to complete a checklist through the national organization, and according to the U.S. Chamber Foundation, eligible businesses must have 500 or fewer employees, hold an Employee Identification Number and report at least $5,000 in economic or physical disaster losses. The foundation's FAQ also notes the program only activates after a state-declared emergency or disaster declaration, and won't kick in if that declaration comes more than 45 days after the disaster itself.
The chamber will also provide information about low-interest loans for storm damage, which Whittaker said can carry rates of roughly 3% to 4% over 30 years. That tracks with figures reported for a separate Indiana storm declaration, where SBA disaster loans ran as low as 4% for businesses, 3.625% for private nonprofits and 3% for homeowners and renters, also with terms up to 30 years, according to 21Alive. Separately, eligible businesses and private nonprofits affected by the August storms may apply for SBA disaster loans of up to $2 million for physical damage and economic losses, per the Crossroads Chamber.
Federal Aid Already Flowing
The Nov. 5 event arrives as federal disaster aid continues moving through the system. As of Oct. 13, FEMA had received more than 60,000 applications tied to the storms and distributed about $142 million in federal funds along with $32 million in state funds, according to WRTV. Separately, a joint $2 million contribution followed the derecho, while NIPSCO suspended disconnections in the storm's aftermath.
Whittaker framed the grant program's purpose as helping businesses prepare for the next disaster rather than simply patching up from the last one, describing it as a way to begin a path toward resilience. She said people need to be better prepared for whatever storms come next, and that communities should start talking now about how to work together before the next emergency hits.
