By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer
Chris Kelly Streamers and a sign post cover automobiles at a used car dealership on Route 36, the aftereffects of the Aug. 2 thunderstorm.
While last Friday’s storm walloped the entire area, the resultant power outages and other storm damage hit some businesses hard while sparing others, resulting in a patchwork of stories about how businesses coped.
For example, ice cream stores especially vulnerable to loss of power, like the Häagen-Dazs on Broad Street in Red Bank, Ryan’s Ice Cream on Shrewsbury Avenue, and Crazee’s on River Road in Rumson, were barely affected by the storm.
At the A&P on Prospect Avenue in Little Silver, however, it was a different story. There, manager Frank Pickel said the loss of power for more than 50 hours wiped out the supermarket’s entire inventory of perishables, including meat, dairy, produce and frozen foods.
"We lost anything that requires refrigeration, and our Shrewsbury store was hit hard, too," he said. The supermarket closed Friday and reopened Sunday with shelves stripped of perishables, which had been discarded in dumpsters.
Chris Kelly Because of the devastating effects from the massive thunderstorm, the A&P supermarket in Little Silver lost power for over 50 hours, which caused the store to throw away all its refrigerated products. Above, on Monday, part of the refrigerated food section is bare, with only a few products that the store has been able to restock.
Pickel, who said the outage was the worst in his 15-year career with the supermarket chain, said a generator had been secured to supply power to the store. Restocking would take days, he explained, with goods from warehouse and distributors. As for the losses, which Pickel couldn’t yet estimate, "We take it on the chin as far as I know," he commented.
The food stores were among the businesses of particular concern to the Red Bank Health Department, which also provides service to Fair Haven, Rumson and Little Silver.
"We’ve been busy, making sure everything’s properly disposed, and the stores are doing what they’re supposed to. We went to affected stores, determined what needed to be disposed of, and that the stores are following proper procedures," said Fred Reichart, Red Bank’s health officer.
Businesses on Monmouth Street in Red Bank had another storm-related issue to deal with. The intensity of the rainfall — some reports said 4.5 inches of rain fell during the storm’s first hour — overwhelmed storm drains and caused major flooding on the crowded side street.
"We lost power Friday night, and when I came to work on Saturday, the street and store were flooded. Supplies and printed jobs waiting to be delivered were ruined," said Dennis McGinnis of McGinnis Printing at 20 Monmouth St.
Rainfall runoff had flowed under the front and back doors, and seeped into the store’s basement, where more supplies were ruined, he said.
McGinnis grabbed a shop vacuum and set up dehumidifiers, and while he was philosophical about the orders that would need to be reprinted, he was less than happy that his insurance adjuster had indicated his loss wouldn’t be reimbursed.
Restaurant owner Chris Mariani at Buona Sera on Maple Avenue made the best of a bad situation. With the storm raging outside, and 6 inches of water accumulating on the restaurant floor, Mariani grabbed a guitar and began to serenade a captive audience — diners who had to stay put. Mariani and crew stayed the night cleaning up, and unlike most other eateries in the downtown, the restaurant was able to reopen for dinner Saturday, after 20 hours without power.
"We were one of the fortunate ones," he said. "We were able to open on Saturday. It’s very hard for restaurants to lose Friday and Saturday nights."
"The streets emptied out, and we became a refuge for everybody," said John Copeland, whose Broadway Grill on Broad Street was one of the few restaurants that managed to remain open throughout.
Despite serious flooding that swept its storage crates down Monmouth Street, Copeland said the eatery and the newly opened Copeland’s Market next door didn’t lose power.
"We were the only ones with power in downtown Red Bank," noted Copeland, whose eatery was mobbed as a result.
"We opened at 9 a.m. and by 9:20 a.m., we had people waiting for tables," he said, adding that by the 10 p.m. closing, 1,000 people had been served. "It was our busiest day ever," observed Copeland, "even with a one-hour closing between breakfast and lunch to restock.
"Word got around that we were one of the few places that had power," he said. "It was nice at the end of the day to have made all that money, but I felt for the other businesses."
If storm-stunned residents were seeking comfort foods, they were also looking for heavy-duty hardware.
At Home Depot in West Long Branch, which lost power on Friday but remained open, "Business was terrific," according to Howard Stoner of Long Branch. "We’re out of chain saws, generators — stuff people need in a storm," he said.
"People were mostly buying flashlights, batteries, extension cords for generators, rakes, a tremendous amount of tools for cleanup, like mops and buckets and tarps to cover holes in roofs and damaged parts of their homes," said Harvey Shooman, owner of Fair Haven Hardware on River Road.
Predictably, business was brisk all day at the hardware store, which lost power through Sunday, but used a back-up generator to open for business Saturday in one of the area’s hardest hit towns.
"That’s why we’re here and going strong after almost 50 years," Shooman commented.
At Prown’s Has Everything on Broad Street, however, the power outage lasted throughout Saturday and, together with flooding, closed the Red Bank landmark, costing sales and customer service.
"We did not get a big rush because the sense of urgency was on Saturday morning," explained owner David Prown. "People went to the big-box stores, and the loss of power cost us on our busiest day of the week."
Shopping centers in general fared poorly in the power outages. Like other centers along Route 35, The Grove in Shrewsbury closed through Monday as a result of the storm, said Cindy Wilkinson, spokeswoman for Terranomics Development, which manages the upscale lifestyle center. Damage at the center was limited to some downed tree limbs, she said. While stores didn’t reopen until Monday, customers showed up on the weekend peering into the darkened Pottery Barn store, leading Wilkinson to speculate that they were possibly looking for candles in the wake of the power outage.