ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. (WFLA) — In Pinellas County, many small business owners are still working hard to recover and reopen after back-to-back hurricanes hit their establishments.
One problem many are running into is the Small Business Administration has now run out of funding for loans.
In St. Pete Beach, Ozzie Reyes owns the "Beach Hair Affair" Salon and was hit hard by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
"Oh, it was total devastation," said Reyes.
His business has now reopened after a lot of hard work.
"We worked for about 10 to 15 hours a day, for almost over a month," said Reyes.
Next door, at the "Gym Grooming Barber Shop" they are still working to put up drywall and to put down new flooring after a storm surge came into the building.
"Actually Helene gave me three feet of water and took me out of business," said owner Junior Afandor.
He's having problems because he can't get a SBA loan to help in his recovery.
"SBA has no money, so there ain't no SBA to help the small businesses to get funds to go back into business," said Afandor.
On the SBA website, a notice says: "Until Congress appropriates additional funds, the SBA is pausing new loan offers for its direct, low-interest, long-term loans to disaster survivors."
However, the SBA is advising people to begin filling out loan applications now, so that when finding does return, it will speed up the process.