SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Business owners in Sarasota County dealing with damage from Hurricane Ian are urged to fill out a business damages assessment survey.
County leaders said only a tiny fraction of businesses have completed the survey so far as the deadline approaches.
They are worried if business owners don't fill out the damage assessment survey soon enough to jumpstart recovery efforts, they might be forced to say shut down.
Darli Iakovleva owns Classical Ballet Academy in North Port and said her business had some damage to its roof. The ceiling caved in and then caused water to fill up the studio. The damage forced the dance school to remain shut for weeks after the storm.
"We had a lot of leakages so we had to remove the dance floor. They got all flooded and our costumes and everything that we had in here we had to take out,' Iakovleva said.
Iakovleva said she had listed all the damages to her business on the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity's business damage assessment survey.
"It's all pending so we're waiting. It's basically a waiting game," Iakovleva said.
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While businesses have been impacted in different ways and to different degrees if at all, business leaders with the Sarasota Economic Development Corporation said only 500 of the 27,000 businesses registered in Sarasota County have filled out the survey.
The slow response is concerning to county leaders as statistics show that nearly 40% of companies that close due to the storm may never reopen, according to the EDC.
"It's so important for us to have a good idea of the damages that have been done by Hurricane Ian," Lisa Krouse, president and CEO of Sarasota EDC, said.
The state plans to use the data to allocate the right amount of funding to impacted counties to fast-track the recovery process.
Call centers have been set up by both the county and various cities to contact businesses, however, people are hanging up on volunteers amid concerns about scams.
"If at any time there is a question about the legitimacy of somebody reaching out about the survey, I would ask businesses to please reach out to our office," Erin Silk, head of business development for Sarasota EDC, said.
"Walk into the EDC office, give us a call or go to your local Chamber of Commerce. We are working very closely with all the counties' chambers to get the word out about the assessment," Silk said.
Businesses have until the end of the year to complete the survey. You can complete the damage assessment survey and learn more by going to the EDC's website.