SBA disaster declarations in fiscal year 2026
Small Business Administration. October 14, 2026. Read the source.
Which SBA disaster declarations were approved in fiscal year 2026?
The Small Business Administration received 68 requests from states, territories and tribes for a disaster declaration in fiscal year 2026, and it approved every one. The list, published in the Federal Register on October 13, 2026, covers fires, floods, tornadoes, winter storms, a typhoon and a hazardous materials incident. Illinois made the most requests, with 12. A declaration lets businesses, private nonprofits, homeowners and renters in the affected area apply for SBA disaster loans.
What the list covers
The notice lists each request SBA received between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026. Each row gives the state, the disaster dates, a description, the date the state asked and the date SBA declared. Congress directed SBA to publish it in the explanatory statement of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026.
Severe storms and tornadoes account for most of the requests. Single events appear too: apartment and warehouse fires, an airplane crash in Louisville, an oil spill and a hazmat incident in Garden Grove, California. The Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico received a declaration for storms, flooding and landslides. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands received one after Super Typhoon Bavi.
SBA usually declared within days of the request. For a small business waiting on a decision, that speed is the useful number.
What a declaration unlocks
These are SBA's own declarations, made at a governor's or tribal leader's request under 13 CFR 123.3. They often cover disasters that never receive a federal major disaster declaration from FEMA. Once one is made, organizations in the area it names become eligible for SBA disaster loans.
Two kinds of loan follow. Physical disaster loans repair or replace damaged property for businesses of any size, private nonprofits, homeowners and renters. Economic injury disaster loans give working capital to small businesses and most private nonprofits that lost revenue because of the disaster, whether or not they had physical damage.
Each declaration sets its own filing deadlines, which SBA publishes with the declaration. Check them early, since the window for physical damage closes well before the window for economic injury.
Loans first, then grants
An SBA disaster loan has to be repaid. Recovery money that does not shows up later, from state recovery programs, community foundations that open disaster funds and federal grants for rebuilding.
Quillify searches 4,300+ open grants and 480+ community development lenders in one place, matched to what your organization does and where it is. After a disaster, that is how a nonprofit or small business finds the recovery funding open to it this month. How community lenders and patient capital work.
Find the funding open to you this week.
Browsing and keyword search are free, and there is no card required.