STANTON, Calif. (KABC) — More than a week after the toxic tank emergency at GKN Aerospace triggered a massive evacuation in Orange County, thousands of businesses are now fighting to recoup their losses.
The evacuation forced businesses to shut down for days. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the disaster also cost them their sales on what was expected to be a busy holiday weekend.
Instead of her normal day-to-day work, Ziyu Zhang, working on her computer at the counter of her family’s restaurant, Chic Now Hainan Chicken Rice, in Stanton, is tasked with tallying how much money her small business lost over the course of the past week — compared to Memorial Day last year, she estimates around $10,000 in sales.
“We also lost like about 2K in inventory. We threw all the chicken, the rice, the vegetable, we need to prepare everything new for our customer,” Zhang said.
It’s because her business was one of around 5,000 in Orange County forced to evacuate due to a hazmat incident at nearby GKN Aerospace. Fire crews feared an explosion or toxic spill.
Zhang says they cleared out Thursday of last week and just reopened a day ago.
“We stayed at home waiting for the notice every day that, you know, right now the economy is not good and the rent is so high and the cost is raised as well,” said Zhang.
It’s why Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen says all small business owners should fill out the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan worksheet for businesses, that will ultimately be submitted to the Small Business Administration.
“We want to make sure our businesses survive. It’s an unfortunate situation, something that we don’t want to happen, didn’t anticipate it,” Nguyen said. “They fill it out, send it to the sheriff’s department, we would then submit it over to SBA, which is the small businesses administration, then from there the small business administration will work with the business owner to see what they can offer and how they can assist.”
Zhang is now in the process of submitting that form and contacting insurance, hoping for relief for her family.
“Stop for one week, it’s going to be like 25 percent of the whole month, the sales volume, the revenue,” Zhang said.
Crews at GKN in Garden Grove have transitioned out of the emergency response phase and are now working on cleanup efforts. The Orange County Health Care Agency is overseeing it.
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