BALTIMORE — The bridge collapse still leaves many in disbelief.
It also brought businesses near the port into unforeseen territory.
“I went to work, and all day long, every single customer that we have was calling me, so my phone was just ringing off the hook," said Allison Sommer.
The calls from companies were asking where to send their products.
Charm City Warehousestores shipment containers directly from the port.
“Almost everything that comes through our warehouse is through the port; everything is from containers that we pulled from the port. We handle everything lumber car parts wrote big coils steel up to 22,000 pounds," said Allison Sommer.
A lot of those shipments that were on their way from all over the world are now rerouted to Norfolk, Virginia, or Newark, New Jersey ports.
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Allison Sommer says this has had a huge impact not only on the storage portion of the business but also on the truck drivers who normally move the containers.
Each driver averages a trip of about 12 miles.
Now they will have to travel hundreds of miles to pick up the shipping containers sent to the other two ports.
With the cost of transportation rising so quickly, Charm City Warehouse applied for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s disaster relief loan.
“We have a lot of employees that rely on us to feed their families, so we want to be able to keep everyone that we have and stay afloat,” said Sommer.
One in Dundalk, the other at CareFirst.
“The sooner you apply, the sooner you be able to get those funds in the working capital you need for your business to recover," says Stephen Clark.
Sommer says it was crucial for her family's company to apply right away in hopes it will be able to bring the cost back down for its customers, so they won’t have to search for other warehouses.
“It’s a cost that we didn’t expect and also our customers. Their cost is going up, so if they found a way to cut their costs, we can’t really blame them," she said.
Governor Moore announced Monday afternoon that SBA has received over 50 applications so far from businesses.
Stephen Clark with SBA says there are minimal requirements for businesses that can apply.
“They don’t require any physical damages to the business, but are working capital loans so if a business has a reduction in revenue and need to work a capital loan to recover, that would be the time when you would apply for an economic industry disaster loan," said Clark.
He also encourages local businesses to apply as soon as possible, even if they are not sure how much their business will be affected.
