New Orleans Pies Can't Wait for SBA

Through Dec. 30, SBA figures show the agency had approved 28,689 loans worth $2 billion, almost all for Katrina victims. Of those, 4,363 worth nearly $330 million, were to businesses.

Of the $1.1 billion approved for Katrina victims in Louisiana, 1,891 of the loans, worth $148 million, were for businesses.

Hubig's Pies was not among them.

Recently though, Ramsey said he had made sufficient progress to start baking again. By last week he had regrouped almost half of his 55 workers, enough to fire up the ovens. He picked up lemon oil and sent a worker to Baton Rouge to get sweet potatoes and a new "apple" stamp for the labels on the pie wrappers. Apples arrived by air from Washington state. And after discovering that oven controls were "fried" by power surges, Ramsey bought new ones and calibrated them.

By 3 p.m. yesterday, the first test run of 3,000 snack pies was finished and was being given away to firefighters and police officers, he said. By Monday the initial target of 10,000 snack pies a day, though only half the pre-Katrina run, should be read to sell, he said.

There will be other changes in the business too. Employees will be getting a raise and the pies will cost a little more, Ramsey said. And the customer base will be different.

"Where there used to be people, there are none and we'll have to adjust," he said. "There's been a huge population migration." A delivery man found only one gasoline station open in St. Bernard's parish, while cities north and west of New Orleans, including Baton Rouge, Metairie and Kenner, are booming.

"We will go where the people are," Ramsey said.