The storm hit and the insurance claim is 90 days out. How do you reopen before the check comes?

A straightforward commercial property claim takes around three months to resolve. One with structural damage or a business-interruption calculation attached routinely runs six months or more, and the business-interruption part often has a waiting period before it pays anything at all. The adjuster's first visit is not the check. It is the beginning of a process that your landlord, your staff and your lease do not wait for.

Owners who reopened fastest after a hurricane or a flood describe the same pattern: they photographed everything the same day, filed the claim the same week, and applied for money the same week — all three at once, rather than one after the other.

The claim. Photos and video of every damaged item before cleanup, receipts and invoices for what was destroyed, and a written timeline. Insurers want proof of what you had and what you earned before the storm; the more of it you send in week one, the fewer months the claim takes.

The SBA disaster loan, if your county was in a declared disaster. The SBA lends directly to businesses for physical damage and for economic injury after a declaration, at low fixed rates over long terms, and its own guidance says you do not need to wait for the insurance to settle before applying. It is slow — weeks to months — and it is the cheapest money you will see in this situation. We do not place it; the SBA does, and the link is below.

The bridge. A working capital loan or cash advance underwritten on the months of deposits before the storm, funded in one to three business days, sized to the gap between now and the first insurance or SBA money. This is what pays the cleanup crew, the first rent after reopening and the staff you want to keep.

Send twelve months, not three, and send the claim number with the statements. A funder reading a year of steady deposits followed by one empty month with a hurricane's name on it is reading a business that will come back. Three months ending in the storm is the one window that looks like a closure.

Amounts run half to one and a half times a normal month's deposits. Borrow the gap to the first expected payout, not a round number, and ask for weekly payments so that the repayment fits the reopening rather than fighting it.

If a funder offers a reconciliation clause — an adjustment to the debit if revenue is slow to return — get the one that says shall, not may. Reopening weeks are exactly when you will need it.

Pay the bridge first if it is a term loan with interest; it stops costing you the day it is cleared. If it is a fixed-factor advance, the total is set at signing and early payment saves nothing unless a discount was written in, so keep the cash and let it run. Then put the remainder against the SBA loan's purpose, because that is what its terms require.