Business Owners Took a Hit from Irene

Several Westwood business owners were out Monday cleaning their facilities and readying them for reopening after flood waters inundated them when blew through the area.

on Broadway was a muddy mess Monday after five feet of water rushed through the building. Traci Heinz, who owns the business with her husband, said since they knew the storm was coming they loaded inventory in a tractor trailer and moved it from the facility.

"This morning we came back to mud and dirt and now we're just unloading the truck," she said.

Heinz said they don't have flood insurance because in the past they found that the insurance company wouldn't cover everything.

Heinz hopes to reopen Tuesday, but said that the phone and internet service would have to be up and running for that. As of Monday afternoon, neither was working.

Reopening is critical for the business since every day the doors remain closed, Heinz loses money. She said additional costs included a shattered front window and paying employees to help clean up Monday.

"It's cost us a lot of money," Heinz said. "We'll take a big hit."

A few doors down, Blackman Plumbing Supply Company had a sign on its door that it was closing its Westwood location immediately because of "issues of repetitive flooding." Other branches listed on the sign are in Hackensack and Mahwah.

on Broadway was also closed Monday. Ernst Dietl, who was at the facility, said the rink lost 20 percent of its ice and the remaining 80 percent was not usable for skaters.

Dietl said the family-run business took on about two feet of water, which he said was better than when Hurricane Floyd affected the area.

He wasn't sure when the rink would reopen, but hoped by next week. He said his family just had to pay cleanup costs.

on Lake Street will remain closed until Wednesday, according to owner John Scaffa. He said there was more than two feet of water in the store between 8 and 10 a.m. Sunday.

He said although he probably has "a couple thousand dollars at least" in damages, he fared better with Irene than he did with Floyd.

He said the warning gave him time to move laundry off the floor so it was saved. Some of his equipment and motors were damaged though, since he couldn't move the washers off the ground.

"We're looking into what our insurance does or doesn't cover," Scaffa said. "Hopefully we'll get some kind of relief from that."

But not all businesses in flood prone areas were badly affected. on Broadway was open for business Monday without any visible signs of flooding. Employees said pre-storm precautions paid off and they were much better off in the storm than others in the area.