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Report

Weather and Waste: Rethinking Small Business Support Following a Natural Disaster

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Kristen Fanarakis

Associate Director, Small Business Policy and Innovation
Kristen Fanarakis is an associate director at MI Finance, leading the small business policy and innovation initiative. The Milken Institute Small Business Policy and Innovation Initiative analyzes the macroeconomic trends and policies affecting small businesses and offers policy recommendations and solutions aimed at fostering an environment of inclusive prosperity. Her work engages and educates policy stakeholders to address the challenges small businesses face.
Topics
Environmental Impact
Finance
Economic Landscape
Small Business Strategies

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As of November 1, 2024, one each of 24 confirmed weather-related disasters in the United States caused damage associated with losses exceeding $1 billion. The year was one of the costliest since 1980. Nationally, the annual number of natural disasters increased from 3.3 in the 1980s to more than 17 in the past decade. Most attention has been paid to the physical damage and how to make physical infrastructure more resilient. Little attention has been paid to how to make small businesses, which comprise the bulk of the American economy, more resilient to natural disasters. Roughly 65 percent of small businesses close down within one year after experiencing a natural disaster. This report explores disaster response inefficiencies and provides a series of recommendations to improve the small business survival rate.

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