‘A cry for help’ | In Newport, locals are stepping in as business owners wait on federal assistance

NEWPORT, Tenn. (WVLT) – A business owner in the now devastated downtown Newport is thanking her neighbors. It comes after she said, like many small business owners in Newport, she was denied unemployment assistance.

Elizabeth Williams’ owns Elite Beauty. She said she was working on a client Friday night when water started rushing into the business. They didn’t have time to grab anything.

“We had 15 minutes to get out,” she said.

Everything in her business is destroyed; she estimates about $15,000 in esthetician equipment.

“So, I’m really just stuck. A lot of us don’t qualify for unemployment, because we are self-employed. They don’t agree with it. I got denied. I don’t know what we are going to do.”

Williams has insurance but not flood insurance. Something many home- and business-owners in Cocke County are dealing with.

“Ninety percent of us didn’t have flood insurance,” she said. “All of this will be out of pocket; I don’t know how we are going to do that, considering a lot of us don’t have water. We don’t have the sanitary products we need.”

She said she is hoping the state and federal governments can offer some relief.

“There’s just been no help, other than other local people,” Williams said. “I definitely feel like the state or somebody needs to step in and get some things going.”

Williams said she and many other downtown businesses have invested money into revitalizing that area and now she says they’re being left behind.

“This is a cry for help.”

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