The 42-year-old restaurant will never reopen in the same location. The event space’s owner is trying to scrape together some income to repair the barn, which will cost tens of thousands of dollars. The gallery continues to support local artists whose studios, inventory, and equipment have been wiped out.
These are just some of the challenges that business owners in Southeastern U.S. cities must grapple with. Immediately after Hurricane Helen. one of the most important devastating hurricane The storm has killed at least 206 people in U.S. history, according to the latest tally. AccuWeather estimates that the hurricane could cause up to $160 billion in economic damage, making it more costly than Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“No one expected anything like this.”
David Hitterman, owner of Frog Pond restaurant with locations on Florida’s West Coast in North Redington Beach and St. Pete Beach, said he was caught off guard by the hurricane’s strength.
“No one expected this storm to be this strong,” he told CBS News. “It’s unbelievable. We had hurricane shutters on the windows, but they didn’t help anything.”
For more than 40 years, Hitterman’s landlords have been unsure whether to invest in renovating the building, given the extensive damage to his restaurant.
David Hitterman
“The landlord wants to sell the building, but he doesn’t know what the next step will be,” he said.
Helen flooded the restaurant, and Frog Pond employees banded together to clean the space. Hitterman said he withdrew funds from the company’s money market account to pay employees for their work over the past two weeks.
“I feel sorry for the employees. It’s not fair,” Hitterman said.
Hitterman acknowledges that the original Frog Pond facility will likely no longer exist, but is committed to reopening it in some form.
“It’s not clear whether we’ll reopen in our existing stores, but we’re looking into things,” he said. “We have been serving the community for many years. We have seen many generations come through our doors and many weddings and funerals. We have a very good following and name recognition.” Hitterman said.
From restaurants to arts venues, few businesses in the affected areas were spared destruction.
art after the storm
An art gallery in Greenville, South Carolina, which remains open without major damage from the storm, remains dedicated to local artists, some of whom work out of their studios near Asheville. There is. North Carolina was hit hardest by the storm.. Catastrophic flooding across the state destroyed several towns and killed dozens of people, and the N.C. Bureau of Climate Change said the storm was approaching a “worst-case scenario for western North Carolina.”
Bracken Sansbury, director of Art and Light Gallery, told CBS News that three out of four Asheville-based artists represented by Art and Light Gallery have “completely closed their studios. “I lost it,” he said. storm.
Asheville-based painter Jeremy Russell was able to deliver a collection of 20 paintings to the gallery hours before the storm hit, Sansbury said.
“We set up a show on Monday. It’s live and active. We want to sell it out to help him get back on his feet,” she said.
In contrast, The Barn at Bucks Sports, a kids party venue and event space in Atlanta, will be closed for the foreseeable future. Owner Paul Rogers estimates it will cost about $10,000 worth of repairs, including replacing the venue’s walls, before considering reopening in some form.
In a typical year, Bucks hosts about 400 kids parties, or about 30 or more a month. In the aftermath of Helen, Mr. Rogers has no plans to host any events in October. His only source of income is selling $25 tickets to a haunted house experience held in another building that was not damaged by the hurricane.
“It’s aimed at kids, but it’s also scary for adults. You walk through the door and say on a scale of 1 to 10 how scary you want it to be,” he said. “We’re scheduled to open this Saturday.”
