Computers, tax records and equipment for the business, Turf Care Specialties, were devastated.

For the time being, they knew, they could not do their usual work of installing underground sprinklers, so they tried to make ends meet by clearing debris from yards and repairing irrigation systems. But their weekly revenue dropped to about $2,000, from $4,000 before the storm hit, not nearly enough to pay all their bills.

With just $12,000 in savings, they applied for a Small Business Administration disaster loan with a 2.9 percent interest rate, but weeks went by with no word. Desperate, the couple turned to the source that they had used to start their business in 1999, Community Enterprise Investments, a Pensacola nonprofit that makes small loans quickly to start-ups and struggling family businesses.

Within five days, Community Enterprise had rolled a $10,000 balance that remained on the Whitmans' existing 10 percent loan into a five-year, $25,000 loan at 6 percent, resulting in an infusion of $15,000 in new money and at a much lower interest rate. (By contrast, it took the S.B.A. six months to finish all the paperwork and sign off on the couple's request for $35,000.)

"It was a godsend," said Kimberly Whitman. Without it, she says, the company would have gone bankrupt.