Small-town Kentucky grocer able to rebuild after devastating flood: $1.3 million disaster loan put Wyatt's SuperValu back in business in 66 days.

* When a 1997 flood put the late Ruby Wyatt and her Falmouth, Ky., grocery store out of business, she didn't shed a tear. She just buckled down, toughened up and rebuilt the family-owned operation.

In fact, it was business as usual for the 82-year-old proprietor of Wyatt's SuperValu. "I have not shed a tear, nor will I," she is quoted as saying. "I will rebuild my store and move on with my life."

And within 66 days, that's just what she did. With help from her supplier, SuperValu Corp., based in Minneapolis, and her steadfastness, Wyatt was swiftly, approved for more than $1.3 million in U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loans.

The SBA loan allowed Wyatt to repay a $750,000 bridge loan from SuperValu and replace inventory and equipment destroyed by the flood waters of the South Fork Licking River.

Jim Shields, a SuperValu marketing director whose territory includes northern Kentucky, described awarding the $750,000 interim loan as his proudest moment in an 18-year tenure with the grocery supplier. "SuperValu gave her the inventory on a handshake," he says. "We blew away all of the barriers and red tape to get this store opened."

Shields was equally instrumental in getting the SBA disaster loan for Wyatt.

"Ruby wanted to open the store right away," he says. With help from the Kentucky Grocers Association, local senators and representatives, Shields pushed through the SBA disaster loan application. Shields says SBA public information officer Don Waite was a remarkable resource throughout the entire process. "That guy told me all of the ins and outs and shortcuts," Shields says. "It was the quickest turnaround I've ever seen with any government-funded program." (Waite died in June).

"The, SuperValu executives thought an awful lot of mother and dad," says Wyatt's daughter, Dixie Owen, who now owns and operates the store. "They worked feverishly to put us in touch with the SBA. They made it easy and quick.

"We had the store more than half paid off before the flood," Owen says. "This took us back to square one."

In addition to the SBA loan for the grocery, Owen says she and her mother received personal disaster loans to rebuild their homes destroyed by the flood.

Owen says that until her mother's death in June 2002, Wyatt maintained an active role in the grocery-store business. "She would write checks and she had a handle of what was going on," Owen says. "She was 87 going on 47--she sure didn't look or act her age."

Wyatt and her late husband, Abe, started their grocery business in 1945 in the back of a 1929 Studebaker truck they called a "rolling store," driving on rural roads to deliver groceries.

The couple built their first permanent store in 1946. To accommodate a growing business, they built a new store in 1949 and lived upstairs. "I can't tell you how many times they added on to that store," Owen says. "Daddy kept going back until he was as close to the river bank as possible and then he had to expand out to the side."

That store was flooded, too, in 1964, but reopened a week later.

Abe Wyatt died of cancer in 1985, but Ruby Wyatt stayed in the business, incorporating with her daughters, Dixie Owen and Pat Simmons. Wyatt's SuperValu faced competition from a neighboring IGA Supermarket in Falmouth. "SuperValu told mother you have to grow," Owen says. So Wyatt built the current 17,000-square-foot store in 1990. "We were head over heels in debt, but the business was growing and doing very well."

Owen recalls that her mother loved to have sales promotions with themes at the grocery. "We'd dress in costumes from the Roarin' Twenties to western. We'd have ice cream socials and she would make a circus out of it."

The rival grocery store did not reopen after the flood, leaving Wyatt's SuperValu the only full-service grocery store in the town of about 2,058 residents. The store had 52 employees before the disaster, and now has 60.

The never-say-die entrepreneurial spirit of Wyatt and Owen caught the attention of federal officials. The mother-daughter team was named the winner of the 1998 Phoenix Award for Small Business Disaster Recovery. The Falmouth grocers traveled to Washington, D.C., to collect the honor. Owen says her mother announced to the audience that she appreciated the SBA's faith in giving a 30-year loan to an 83-year-old woman.

"And I'm looking forward to living that long to pay it off," she said.

In addition to the Phoenix Award, Wyatt was named the Kentucky Grocers Association Grocer of the Year in 1995 and the Women Grocers of America's Woman of the Year in February 1997--18 days before her store would be under water.

"Ruby was an unbelievable lady," Shields says. "She and Dixie were quality people and good businesspeople."

Disaster Loan Programs

What: The primary form of federal assistance for disaster losses. SBA disaster loans help homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes and nonprofits fund rebuilding. The SBA makes two types of disaster loans:

* Physical disaster loans for rebuilding and replacement of real and/or personal property.

* Economic injury disaster loans provide working capital to small businesses until normal operations resume after a disaster.

How: The loans have low interest rates and long terms. SBA tailors repayment to a borrower's financial capability. Disaster loans require borrowers to maintain appropriate hazard and flood insurance coverage to reduce the need for future disaster assistance.

Loan limits: Home loan amounts are limited to $200,000 to repair/replace real estate and $40,000 to repair/replace personal property. Business loan amounts are limited to $1.5 million for real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory and other physical losses. Economic injury disaster loan amounts are limited to $1.5 million.

Wyatt's Supermarket Inc.

President: Dixie Owen 1310 W. Shelby St. Falmouth, KY 41040 [phone]

Year founded: 1945

Employees: 60

SBA-backed loan amount: $1,316,200

SBA loan terms: The interest rate for the declared disaster was 4 percent over 30 years