BATON ROUGE, La. (September 2, 2021) – The Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) today released an analysis of responses to its Hurricane Ida business impact survey. The survey collected responses from 163 regional businesses between Tuesday and today at noon.
“Businesses throughout the Capital Region continue to struggle with issues related to power and internet accessibility: two out of every three businesses that closed after Ida are not able to reopen until they and their employees are reconnected to the grid,” said Andrew Fitzgerald, senior vice president of business intelligence. “The good news is that only four out of the of the 163 survey respondents (2.5%) mentioned storm-related damages as the reason behind their temporary business closure. As Entergy announced today that they expect the majority of Capital Region customers to have their lights back on by Wednesday, we expect many businesses to reopen over the next week.”
Key takeaways from survey responses include:
| Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Capital Region businesses are dealing with business closures caused by Hurricane Ida; |
| Two out of every three businesses that closed because of the storm are saying that no access to power/internet is the main reason for their closure; |
| The region’s smallest businesses (those with less than 10 employees) are getting hit the hardest: 83% of these employers have faced some sort of business closure, and 1 in 5 of these businesses expect to remain closed for at least 12 days; |
| The majority (51%) of impacted businesses say it should take somewhere between 3 and 5 days to begin operating normally. |
BRAC is compiling Hurricane Ida recovery resources, research and information for businesses at brac.org/prepare.
About the Baton Rouge Area Chamber
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC) leads economic development in the nine-parish Baton Rouge Area, working to grow jobs and wealth and to improve the business climate and competitiveness in the region. Today, BRAC investors include more than 1,500 small businesses, midsize firms, large industry and entrepreneurial startups, as well as individuals and organizations that support business and economic development. In this capacity, BRAC serves as the voice of the business community, providing knowledge, access, services and advocacy. More information is available at brac.org.
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