Federal Disaster Loans After the August 28 Texas Storms: Eight Counties, and a November 9, 2026 Filing Deadline

What Changed, and When

On September 10, 2026 the U.S. Small Business Administration issued an administrative declaration of a disaster for the State of Texas, published in the Federal Register on September 14, 2026 as disaster declaration numbers 21859 and 21860. The incident it covers is the severe storms and tornadoes of August 28, 2026.

The notice sets two dates, and they are different for the two kinds of loan:

• Physical damage applications: November 9, 2026. This is the one that reaches homeowners and renters.
• Economic injury applications: June 10, 2027. This is working-capital assistance for businesses, agricultural cooperatives and private nonprofits.

The Federal Register notice also lists the interest rates, and the rate turns on whether the applicant has credit available elsewhere. For physical damage: homeowners with credit available elsewhere are at 6.000% and homeowners without it at 3.000%; businesses with credit available elsewhere are at 8.000% and businesses without it at 4.000%; private nonprofits are at 3.625%. For economic injury, businesses and agricultural cooperatives without credit available elsewhere are at 4.000% and private nonprofits at 3.625%.

The Governor’s office announced the approval on September 14, 2026, describing home disaster loans, business physical disaster loans and economic injury disaster loans, and noting a Disaster Loan Outreach Center at the Las Palmas Library at 515 Castroville Road in San Antonio. Applications are taken at sba.gov/disaster.

Reported loan limits, as summarized by Texas Public Radio, run up to $500,000 for a homeowner’s primary residence, up to $100,000 for personal property for homeowners and renters, and up to $2 million for the physical disaster loans available to businesses and nonprofits, with terms as long as 30 years and no payment due for the first 12 months after the initial disbursement.

Who in Texas This Reaches

Eight counties. Bexar is the primary county in the declaration, and the contiguous counties are Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina and Wilson. Anyone outside those eight is not covered by this particular declaration, whatever the storm did to their property.

Within them, the declaration reaches a wider group than the phrase “Small Business Administration” suggests. The physical damage program is open to homeowners and renters, not only to businesses, and renters can apply for personal property losses even though they own nothing to repair. Private nonprofit organizations are eligible on their own terms, and the economic injury program reaches businesses and agricultural cooperatives whose revenue fell because of the storm rather than because of any damage to their own building.

A detail that surprises people every disaster season: a disaster loan application is not limited to those who expect to borrow. The SBA application is also the gateway that certain other forms of assistance are screened through, so a household that has no intention of taking on debt may still be looking at a form with a deadline on it. What a given household is eligible for is a question about that household’s facts.

What This Changes Legally

A deadline now exists where none did before. Until the declaration issued, storm recovery in these counties was a matter between property owners, their insurers and their contractors. The declaration adds a federal filing window that closes on November 9, 2026 for physical damage, independent of how an insurance claim is going.

The loan and the insurance claim are separate proceedings. An SBA disaster loan is a loan, underwritten on credit and repayment ability. An insurance claim is a contract right under a policy. They involve different decision-makers, different evidence and different timelines, and a delay in one does not pause the other. Federal disaster assistance is generally not permitted to duplicate insurance recoveries, which is why the amount of an insurance settlement can affect a loan and why the sequence in which things are filed can matter.

Texas insurance deadlines keep running underneath all of it. A homeowner in these counties is often carrying a storm claim at the same time, and Texas claim disputes have their own notice requirements and limitations periods that run from events rather than from the day someone learns there is a problem. The Texas Department of Insurance publishes consumer information on storm claims.

A declination is a document, not the end of the matter. SBA decisions carry their own reconsideration process with its own timing. What that process requires in a given case is something an attorney or the agency can explain on the specific file.

Contractor and assignment paperwork signed in the weeks after a storm has legal consequences. Repair contracts, assignments of insurance benefits and financing documents signed in a hurry are binding documents, and they are frequently what a later dispute turns on.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

Nothing on this page is legal advice, and nothing here says whether any particular household or business qualifies for a disaster loan or for any insurance payment. What an experienced Texas attorney can review, on the actual paperwork, includes:

• How an SBA loan and an insurance settlement interact for one property, including how a later insurance recovery is treated.
• Whether a storm claim was underpaid, delayed or denied, and what Texas law provides when it was.
• What the policy actually covers — wind versus water, roof endorsements, deductibles stated as a percentage, and coverage for additional living expenses.
• Repair contracts and assignments of benefits signed after the storm, and what they commit the owner to.
• Landlord and tenant questions where a rental property was damaged, including habitability, rent and the return of a deposit.
• Mortgage servicer handling of insurance proceeds, where a lender controls disbursement of repair funds.
• A reconsideration of an SBA decision, and what documentation supports one.
• Business interruption losses and how a commercial policy treats them alongside an economic injury loan.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The November 9, 2026 date is a filing deadline rather than a decision deadline: it governs when an application has to be in, not when a loan has to be approved. Deadlines of this kind are sometimes extended and sometimes not, and an extension is announced by the agency rather than assumed in advance. The economic injury deadline of June 10, 2027 is much further out, which is easy to read as extra time until a business discovers its loss was a physical damage loss all along.

The evidence has its own clock. Photographs of the damage before repairs, the adjuster’s report, the estimate, receipts for temporary lodging and the policy declarations page are all easier to gather now than after a roof has been replaced and a contractor has moved on. Texas claim disputes and disaster applications alike are decided on that record, and it is at its most complete in the weeks after the event. A lawyer reading the documents while the file is fresh is in a different position from a lawyer reading them after a deadline has passed.

Sources

1. U.S. Small Business Administration, “Administrative Declaration of a Disaster for the State of Texas,” 91 FR 58245, published September 14, 2026 (primary document; declarations 21859 and 21860, deadlines and interest rates).
2. Texas Division of Emergency Management and the Office of the Governor, “Governor Abbott Announces SBA Assistance For South-Central Texas Communities Following Bexar County Severe Storms,” September 14, 2026 (primary document; counties, loan types, outreach center).
3. Texas Public Radio, “Federal disaster loans available to South-Central Texas storm victims,” September 17, 2026 (loan limits and terms).
4. U.S. Small Business Administration, disaster assistance applications and program information.
5. Texas Department of Insurance, storm and disaster claim consumer information.