Earthquakes, wildfires, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes and tornadoes. When any one of these disasters strikes a community, major chaos and destruction are left in its wake, requiring specific equipment to help those impacted restore power and pick up the pieces to begin rebuilding.

When Elite Equipment Rental, Decatur, Ala., opened in 2015, co-owners Jason Hill and Shane Buckelew saw their leased location as temporary. However, they found the building worked so well that they bought it and undertook a major remodel.

At the end of 2019, Kendra McMasters and her sister, Rayna Hess, were set for a great 2020. As co-owners of Chairs for Affairs, Concord, Calif., they had built their niche business into an integrated one-stop shop for event coordination, design and rentals. Then the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit and everything came to a screeching halt.