BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Birmingham area small businesses, already struggling to recover from the deepest downturn since the Great Depression, now must cope with the harsh legacy of devastating tornadoes that wrecked communities and disrupted commerce.
Some owners saw their businesses destroyed or damaged and wonder how they will put things back together.
Aquil Abdur-Rasheed is one of them.
When he opened Muzik N More in Five Points West a few years ago, he already had to contend with the fact that consumers affected by the downturn had cut back on buying CDs or had moved to downloading music.
In January, Abdur-Rasheed got a boost by relocating to a higher-profile space in a shopping center at 1401 Third Ave. West.
The came April 27 and winds that ripped part of the roof off the building that housed his record store and other businesses. The timing couldn't have been worse: Abdur-Rasheed was coordinating a community block party in the parking lot scheduled for two days later meant to show off businesses there.
"The relocation was going well, but that storm dealt me a strong blow," said Abdur-Rasheed, who estimates he lost about $10,000 in clothing and music merchandise from rain damage. "This is my sole source of income."
Muzik N More is among hundreds of businesses in the metro Birmingham area, and thousands across the state, affected by violent storms that could end up being Alabama's most costly natural disaster, with losses topping $2 billion.
Widespread suffering
While some major employers such as the Mercedes-Benz auto plant in Vance suffered damage, the head of a small business advocacy group says a majority of enterprises affected by the disaster were small businesses and mom-and-pop stores.
"The storms affected practically every industry in Alabama," said Rosemary Elebash, director of the Alabama chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. "I've talked to some of our members who lost everything -- their homes and their businesses."
She said the recovery "will take years."
Natural disasters like the April 27 tornado outbreak tend to disproportionately affect small businesses, said Franz Lohrke, chairman of the entrepreneurial program at Samford University's Brock School of Business.
"They often have less financial slack than larger firms to contend with sales disruptions, and they often can't access funds or inventory from parent corporations like branch locations of larger firms can," he said. "They can suffer disproportionately because sales can decline during cleanup and customers may take longer to pay, which both hurt cash flow."
In addition, small businesses face the challenge of losing customers to competitors while being shut down and the difficulty of trying to win them back once they are back up and running, Lohrke said.
Abdur-Rasheed said his store re-opened a few days after the storm, but foot traffic is way down and some portions of his store are too dangerous to be in. Plus, he said, some customers haven't come back because the rainwater from the storm has caused mold to form.
He said the landlord put a plastic tarp over the leaky roof, but he is concerned about the possibility of losing more merchandise due to rainy weather.
"I am concerned. The people at Main Street Birmingham have been helping me fill out paperwork to get back on my feet," Abdur-Rasheed said.
David Fleming of Main Street Birmingham, a nonprofit that provides technical assistance for businesses across the city, said his agency has been helping several entrepreneurs affected by the storms.
"Our goal is to make sure small businesses don't fall through the cracks," Fleming said. "We want to hold their hands and help them maneuver through the process of recovery."
Calculating damages
Lesley DeCastro is another business owner wondering how she will put the pieces back together. She had operated Manhattan South, a women's clothing store, in Mountain Brook for four years before relocating to the Heights shopping center in Cahaba Heights on April 7.
Twenty days later, her store suffered heavy damage when a tornado ripped the roof off her building. DeCastro said she is still calculating damages, but added most of her entire inventory of spring and summer merchandise was lost.
"I'm blessed to have good insurance that will cover my losses, but this is my sole income and I don't know when I will get paid," DeCastro said.
DeCastro said Regions Bank has offered assistance, but she estimates it will be at least September before she will be able to reopen.
"I love my location and want to stay there, but by the time I open it will be fall and I would have lost the opportunity to sell my spring and summer merchandise," DeCastro said.
Dan Bundy, her banker at Regions, said he has been in the business for 25 years and has never seen the type of devastation caused by the April 27 storms, with only Hurricane Katrina's effect on the Gulf Coast approaching it.
"With Katrina, it affected clients and their ability to repay loans, but we worked with them and did what we could to help them get back on their feet," Bundy said. "We will do the same this time."
Even some Birmingham area business owners whose buildings didn't suffer physical damage have been affected.
Sandi Gornati, owner of Birmingham trucking company SGI Delivery Solutions, said she was fortunate to suffer no property damage at her Homewood operations. But the tornadoes wiped out several businesses she delivers packages for across Alabama, from Cullman to Tuscaloosa and elsewhere.
"I have 125 drivers on the road and one was in Cullman when the storm hit," Gornati said. "We had one driver lose his home. We have many deliveries sitting in our building because there is no place to take the packages. The ripple effect of the storms on businesses like ours is numbing."
Gornati said she expects her revenue to decline because some clients are no longer operating due to the storms.
"If we can't make deliveries, we don't get paid," she said. "We've got employees affected who we are going to help. It is far-reaching, and will affect businesses for a long time."
Trying to help
Business leaders in cities and counties across Alabama are reaching out to help companies affected by the storms.
Cullman County Chamber of Commerce President Kirk Mancer said about 100 businesses in that county suffered property damage or had buildings destroyed by the tornadoes. The hardest hit areas were Cullman, the county seat, and Hanceville, he said.
"We've had companies displaced and lives turned upside down," Mancer said. "We are making information available about properties available for companies looking to start over."
Numbers are still being tallied, but several businesses in the Walker County towns of Cordova, Sipsey and Argo were destroyed by a tornado, said Linda Lewis, president of the Walker County Chamber of Commerce.
"We lost a cafe, a bank, a Piggly Wiggly and other businesses," Lewis said. "Straight line winds also affected some businesses in downtown Jasper."
Lewis said the Walker County chamber is hosting a community meeting for affected businesses and homeowners from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday, with officials from Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration, relief agencies and mental health experts expected to share information.
Donny Jones, development director for the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce in Tuscaloosa, said nearly 600 businesses in the Tuscaloosa area "have been impacted either physically or economically" through loss of customer base.
The West Alabama chamber last week held a community forum at the Bryant Conference Center on the University of Alabama campus to provide affected businesses with information about resources available to help them get back on their feet again, Jones said. The chamber has also set up an Business Recovery Assistance Center to assist businesses.
"Our motto is rebuilding our Business Community one brick at a time," Jones said.
For some business owners, rebuilding is now the focus.
Full Moon Bar-B-Q co-owner David Maluff said the Birmingham-based chain is committed to rebuild a restaurant on McFarland Boulevard in Tuscaloosa that was destroyed by a twister. No employees or customers were killed, thanks to the actions of a manager who ushered them into a cooler, though three had to be hospitalized with injuries.
"The building is totally gone, but on a positive note I had such good insurance that I have 40 employees, three managers and a partner who we're still paying every week," Maluff said.
Maluff said it could be six months before he is able to reopen, but he wants to stay at the McFarland Boulevard site if a deal can be reached with the landlord. If not, Full Moon will find another site, he said.
"I want to stay in Tuscaloosa because the community has been very good to us," Maluff said. "We are working diligently and want to be one of the first affected businesses to open back up."
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