Topics: Rural Community Vitality, Employment and Workforce, Emergency Management, Economic Sufficiency Awareness

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Description : This three-year project provides business assistance in response to the 2019 Floods in Nebraska, a federal disaster event designated as FEMA DR-4420-NE. The project initially focuses on the Top 10 flood impacted communities identified by the FEMA Community Conditions Assessment (CCA) to provide the assistance where it is needed most and fine tune tools before expanding the delivery to other communities and 14 most heavily impacted rural Nebraska counties. The project is designed to assist 286 businesses in three years, develop 27 new long term NBDC clients, and support 497 jobs. The project uses an innovative approach to disaster assistance by first identifying gaps in the existing rural business economy infrastructure, and then aiding clients in development of enterprise specific supply chain improvement designed to strengthen the long-term resiliency of the business. The tools developed as part of this project are portable in nature and will enhance the existing body of assistance used by federal, state, and local disaster business assistance programs.