Maryland’s emergency fund supports small businesses affected by Baltimore bridge collapse

The Small Business Administration said it received 500 loan applications after Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed last week.

The funds could be distributed in two weeks to support small businesses that are out of operation as the Port of Baltimore remains closed. Baltimore is home to about 50,000 small businesses, employing 500,000 people.

“The immediate impact [of the bridge collapse] has really been felt by those supply chain, logistics and transportation companies that really focus their businesses on the port and the activity that was happening at the port,” Isabel Casillas Guzman, SBA administrator, told Forbes.

The SBA has distributed similar loans in times of unexpected disastrous situations. In 2005, 140,000 loans were given to small businesses affected by Hurricane Katrina. The federal government forgave 95% of those loans.

The Maryland Senate also unanimously approved a bill Wednesday to authorize Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) to use the state’s “rainy day” funds to assist employees who are now unemployed due to the port closure.

The bill now heads to the Maryland House, where it could be voted on as early as this week. The legislative session in Maryland ends Monday.

“We have uncertainty about when the channel will open, we don’t want to lose business, permanently,” said state Senate President Bill Ferguson, who represents the affected area.

The bill would also allow Moore to help small businesses avoid layoffs due to the closure and bring businesses that moved because of the closure back when it reopens.

Moore said more than 15,000 jobs were located at the Port of Baltimore and an additional 140,000 indirectly rely on the port.

A time frame for the bridge to be rebuilt is not certain. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said the bridge’s original construction time “does not mean it will take five years to replace” but said it was “too soon to be certain” how long it will take to reopen the Port of Baltimore or build a replacement bridge.

On Thursday evening, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it “expects to open a limited access channel 280 feet wide and 35 feet deep, to the Port of Baltimore within the next four weeks – by the end of April.”

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Funds worth $60 million for “quick release” from the emergency relief for the Maryland Department of Transportation became immediately available to rebuild the bridge.

President Joe Biden is expected to visit Baltimore on Friday.