Survey: Superstorm Sandy still affecting small businesses trying to make a comeback

A new survey has found that one-third of small businesses in areas affected by Superstorm Sandy are still struggling to make a comeback. According to a poll just released by the Federal Reserve Bank

News 12 Staff

Apr 22, 2014, 4:09 AM

Updated 3,929 days ago

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A new survey has found that one-third of small businesses in areas affected by Superstorm Sandy are still struggling to make a comeback.
According to a poll just released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, one-third of all tri-state small businesses reported financial losses a year after Sandy. Of those small businesses, 22 percent reported economic losses of more than $100,000.
Along the Nautical Mile in Freeport, business owners say they are almost reaching a breaking point.
Restaurant owner Ilona Jaglow says her businesses are barely hanging on 18 months after Sandy. She says her restaurant, Otto's, had to be rebuilt from the ground up and she lost 10 months of business revenue while the repairs were made. She says her flood insurance covered only a fraction of the cost and other aid programs are mired in red tape. 
"Ideally I would love to get an advance from New York Rising of $50,000 on each of [my] shops...when we get the paperwork straight, everything will fall into place," Jaglow told News 12.
She's managed to get the doors of Otto's open, but the shops she owns are still shuttered. She says she has drained her personal bank account trying to get them reopened in time for summer.