Most businesses slip Sandy’s punch

CLEANING UP: A machine clears sand off Atlantic Avenue in the Misquamicut area of Westerly. While most Rhode Island businesses were able to escape Hurricane Sandy’s wrath, many along the coast are faced with a tough rebuilding process. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
CLEANING UP: A machine clears sand off Atlantic Avenue in the Misquamicut area of Westerly. While most Rhode Island businesses were able to escape Hurricane Sandy’s wrath, many along the coast are faced with a tough rebuilding process. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

For residents and businesses owners in the Misquamicut Beach area of Westerly, Hurricane Sandy was, in a word, devastating.
In the aftermath of the so-called “Frankenstorm” that hit hardest in New York and New Jersey but wreaked havoc along Rhode Island’s coastal towns, the beach was left eroded and several beloved restaurants and hotels that long served village residents were left in shambles.
“It’s pretty bad. Misquamicut was the hardest hit in the whole state. Some of our landmark places are half destroyed,” said Caswell Cooke, a Westerly town council member and executive director of the Misquamicut business association. “Sam’s Snack Bar was just wiped out, like gone. Atlantic Avenue probably has 5 feet of sand on it. [It’s like] you see [only] the top of a stop sign when you go on the street.”
Cooke, who co-owns the Seafood Haven Restaurant on Atlantic Avenue, spoke about the area on Oct. 30, the day after Hurricane Sandy brought wind gusts of up to 86 mph to the area and in the midst of Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee’s tour of South County communities.
The storm left millions without power from the Carolinas to New England and by late last week was believed by authorities responsible for at least 80 deaths.
IHS Global Insights, a global economic-forecasting firm, estimated that the hurricane’s damage could total $20 billion to property and $10 billion to $30 billion more in lost business among the areas it hit.
In Rhode Island, nearly 116,000 residents lost power during the storm that virtually shut the state down for two days and had officials still calculating financial damage late last week.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Oct. 31 approved the quick release of $3 million in emergency relief funds for Rhode Island, which Chafee’s office said would be used to begin repairing damaged sea walls and supporting roadways. Rhode Island will be eligible for additional aid for infrastructure repairs.
Chafee declared Westerly to have suffered the worst damages. But beyond the state’s coastal towns, he said Rhode Island was largely spared from major storm damage. Local businesses and business-community leaders attributed that to a mix of luck and lessons learned from past storm disasters.
Few Rhode Islanders have forgotten the devastating March 2010 historic flooding that shuttered businesses trapped underwater and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure damage. The Warwick Mall was closed for five months. They also haven’t forgotten the widespread, days-long power outages suffered by residents and businesses during Hurricane Irene just a little over a year later in August 2011.
Both storms brought criticism of the state’s emergency-response plans and natural-disaster preparedness and made businesses, including the NYLO Providence/Warwick Hotel, pay greater attention to emergency planning.
NYLO was closed for almost a year and a half following the 2010 floods.
“We cleared off the deck [that overlooks the Pawtuxet River] to prevent furniture from causing damage. We sandbagged along the deck,” said Fabio Pari, general manager, of the hotel’s pre-storm preparations this time around.
Pari also had only essential staff work during the storm and had those staff members staying in rooms there, which he said created a “negligible” cost to the hotel. The hotel also put in place an emergency communication system for guests, including evacuation plans.
Chris Ruhling, general manager and vice president of Brewer’s Yacht Yard in Warwick, said that he and his staff had “very substantial early-on preparation protocol” in place, as they always have during predicted storms.
Of the 175 boats docked there during Hurricane Sandy, he said only three or four had some minor damage, in addition to one that sunk into Greenwich Bay.
Between the four facilities Ruhling manages, he put boat damage at approximately $150,000 to $200,000.
“Our preparation efforts for four or five days really paid dividends,” Ruhling said. “We were exposed [to the storm] pretty substantially. There was mulch and debris in the parking lot, but we’re pretty happy.”
Lauren Slocum, president and CEO of the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, said that many businesses took great precautions during this storm.
“That preparation will help to reduce the loss and certainly will get them back up and operational in a shorter period of time,” Slocum said. “[But] it’s too soon to tell the impact on the business community.”
Until all power is restored, “the monetary impact to businesses and residents will increase,” she said.
Some businesses in harder-hit areas were also able to escape damage, including Ocean Mist, a beach bar in the Matunuck village of South Kingstown that reported no damage. Cooke said that the Watch Hill village in Westerly suffered some water damage and flooding but nothing compared to the beach area. His own restaurant suffered only “a little water damage.” Other businesses weren’t as lucky.
The Andrea Hotel, which has stood in Westerly since 1912, had much of its rear property torn away.
There also were reports of extensive property damage in Narragansett, including major flooding to The Coast Guard House that likely will shut the restaurant down for months.
Slocum said that Norton’s Marina in East Greenwich had extensive roof damage.
Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, said that most businesses in and around her region saw little disruption.
“In South County, it’s a completely different story [but] I think most people, in terms of Greater Providence, made out OK and whatever power outages [occurred] they certainly were not as widespread as during Irene,” White said.
In fact, some businesses suffered no losses by remaining open even when state agencies closed.
Bar Louie in Providence advertised on its Facebook page that it was staying open Oct. 29 by throwing a Frankenstorm Party.
“We stayed open until last call, absolutely. The company always stays open as long as everybody is safe. There’s really no reason not to,” said Maggie Longo, general manager. “As long as we have power and gas and it’s not a danger to anyone, we’re always open because folks need to eat.”
Rick Simone, president of Bella Consulting and Events, said the majority of his restaurant clients tried to stay open for at least part of Oct. 29, though he closed his office for employee safety.
“No. 1, it comes down to safety. We had staff coming from all sides of the state and the governor encouraged, more or less, for businesses to take every precaution possible,” Simone said. “But you definitely lose out on productivity, no matter what. I would say maybe 25 percent of it you are actually able to regain and that’s with putting in extra hours. Any more is wishful thinking.”
Providence also was spared the possible loss of several million dollars in economic benefits from the American Physical Society’s 54th annual meeting of its division of plasma physics that took place at the R.I. Convention Center from Oct. 29-Nov. 2. More than 900 of the 1,300 registered attendees had checked in for the conference by Oct. 29.
“This was a national group so a lot were flying in and it appears that most made it in [before the storm],” said Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We [saw] some slippage at hotels because corporate transients weren’t coming when they might normally on a Monday or Tuesday.”
The PWCVB monitored business openings and closings during the storm, posting notices on its Facebook and Twitter pages, for visitors and residents.
Much of the state was back up and running by Oct. 31.
Roger Williams Park Zoo and Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular reopened for its last show on Halloween after, according to Ron Patalano, deputy director of operations, suffering minor debris from trees and branches. The zoo put intricate pumpkins indoors for the storm.
Washington Trust offices in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut were closed until Oct. 31 but the bank asked customers to conduct transactions online so that branches could concentrate on storm cleanup.
The Newport Visitors Center on America’s Cup Avenue, as well as the Newport mansions, reopened Oct. 30 though, according to Andrea McHugh, marketing and communications manager for Discover Newport, many businesses on Bowen’s and Bannister’s wharves suffered from substantial storm surge.
In Westerly, the focus was squarely on cleanup by midweek.
“We have more than public works can do by themselves,” Cooke said, adding he feared looting. “Security is the major thing. We’ve heard stories of people taking liquor from bars. We have to have inspectors go and look at each of the infrastructures to see if they are condemned.”
Cooke said the beach damage was much worse than during Hurricane Irene, when sand was simply put back on the beach.
“We can’t do that with this,” he said. “There’s a water-main burst, gas leaks, debris in the sand.”
When repairs do begin, White said, it will involve a substantial amount of work.
“It’s hard to find a silver lining when there is so much damage, but I do see that this particular event will drive demand for construction activity and putting people back to work,” White said. •

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