GEORGIA, USA — A low-interest loan is now available to businesses impacted by the Atlanta water main break crisis.
The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency announced the new option on Wednesday.
The loan only applies to businesses impacted by the water main breaks from May 31 to June 6.
City of Atlanta officials previously reported the outage impacted 6,900 small businesses. Businesses in Atlanta had to close for days after the water crisis wreaked havoc across the city, bringing major attention to the city and the country's aging water infrastructure.
GEMA said in a news release that the loan is available to small businesses in 11 Georgia metropolitan counties. Here's a list of counties:
- Cobb
- Cherokee
- Fulton
- Carroll
- Clayton
- Coweta
- DeKalb
- Douglas
- Fayette
- Forsyth
- Gwinnett
GEMA said the Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) will also soon be available.
It comes after applications closed for the City of Atlanta water relief fund, which will give a certain number of grants to small business owners who were inside the boil water advisory during the crisis.
Invest Atlanta reported it received 894 applications, with 535 people completing the City of Atlanta Recovery Fund application.
Applications are currently open, and small business owners can start applying.
According to GEMA, applicants may apply online using the electronic loan application through the Small Business Association website.
Click here to action the online application.
Small business owners can also contact the SBA disaster assistance customer service center by emailing disastercustomerservice@sba.gov or calling 1-800-659-2955.
The application closes on April 10, 2025.
You can apply for assistance online here.
