April 11, 2022 — Sitting on a wooden porch swing hanging from what is left of his shrimp dock on Bayou Barataria, Grant Bundy is still in shock. For nore than seven months since Hurricane Ida blew through Jean Lafitte leaving little behind, he has tried and tried; and then tried again to unsuccessfully get a loan from th Small Business Administration (SBA) to fix his docks, only one of two remaining along the bayou.
“I have to rebuild because I don’t know anything else,” said the owner of Bundy’s Seafood. “This is my whole life right here. I could probably go get a job and start at the bottom, but I can’t support my family on minimum wage. This is my life; I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to rebuild every time.”
Bundy, who turns fifty this year, has been a lifelong resident of the Town of Jean Lafitte. With no insurance on his business, which also includes boat storage sheds and a rental house, he immediately applied for SBA loan so he could start repairs on the more than $300,000 in damages Ida inflicted.
“I need some help fixing my place up. I’m not asking for nothing. I would like to get an SBA loan; I’d pay it back. I’ d like to get my place back the way it was so I can make some money,” he told Gulf Seafood News. “Right now I am fixing a little bit at a time as I make a few dollars. It’s looking like the $300,000 worth of damage will all have to come out of my pocket.”
Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News