Expo offers support to business owners affected by flood

Business owners affected bylast month's raging floodwatersgot some free advice at theCalgary Recovery Expo today.

Nearly 300 people attended the event where professionals from insurance, banking and health industries were on hand to offer support and flood relief information.

"[The goal is] to try to provide as much information as possible to get people capable of assessing the situation and moving forward," said Dwayne Mann with ATB Financial.

Mannsaid many business owners affected by the flood are possibly eligible to have their bank loans deferred for up to one year.

Finance Minister Doug Horner also announced Tuesday details about the Small Business Rebuilding Program, whichwill provide support to small businesses with 21 to 50 full-time employees.

• Flood help coming for small businesses

The program complements the existing Disaster Recovery Program, which provides assistance to organizations with up to 20 employees,and the recently announced Hand-Up Plan thatprovides low-interest loans and interest rebates.

Stress impact yet to be seen

Business coach Steve Chapman's downtown office wasdamaged by the floods and he has many clients who lost their homes.

He said stress levels for most are running high.

"People get into crisis and they work essentially in numb survival," said Chapman."It's when those days are over they start to realize, "What am I going to do now?" that panic and depression and everything else really starts to set in."

Morgan Craig-Broadwith, a workplace mental health expert, was also on hand at the expo tolend an earto business owners whose livelihoods crumbled when the floodwaters hit.

"They're starting to realize what they've gone through, and stress is cumulative. September, October may be when we see people showing signs of stress, so that's a mental health issue."

Chapman hopes to bring business leaders, homeowners and politicians together this fall to come up with a plan to prevent further devastating floods.