Some small businesses in eastern Nebraska are still recovering from continued power outages following a blizzard that swept through the state last Wednesday.
Fremont’s downtown businesses suffered some of the longest power outages in the area. There are also some residents still waiting for power. That loss of electricity can have a devastating effect on small businesses in a small town, according to Christine Torres, the Director of Membership and Development at the Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce.
“As a business owner, that is really tough for them," she said. "I spoke to one of my chamber members, and he had just said, like, they had lost $10,000 in a day."
Torres said the community has come together to support the downtown businesses that have already lost tens of thousands of dollars from the outages.
“For our Fremont area, one year it was like the flood," she added. "One year was tornadoes. And now this. So we will get through this, but we need to help each other, and that has been a beautiful thing to see everyone working together, whether they speak the same languages or not."
Some outages have continued into this week, including in Seward, Burt, Dodge, Colfax and Saunders counties. As of Thursday, the majority of counties have seen a significant increase in power recovery. But prior to Thursday, hundreds were still out of power in eastern Nebraska.
Torres described Fremont-area residents coming together to offer food, shelter and generator access to their neighbors. She said her phone was "blowing up" in both Spanish and English with people offering resources for those in need.
Downtown Fremont businesses are still working to recoup losses from the power outages, so Torres and other economic development organizations in the area are urging people to shop and eat downtown to help those business owners recover from the loss of income. Many, Torres added, donated food at no cost, gave money and helped open up a "pop up grill" for people to cook any meat they worried would go bad during the power outage.