Wickford Coming Back to Life After Flooding

Things looked bleak Monday evening in Wickford Village as the historic village encountered the worst of Hurricane Sandy. Local residents and shop owners looked anxiously on as the water rose. And continued to rise.

By 6 p.m. Monday, more than two hours before the projected high tide, the water had started to crest over Wickford Bridge next to Beach Rose Cafe and over Brown Street. (Click here to check out photos of the storm.) Around the same time, the North Kingstown Police Department shut down West Main Street from Wickford Package store to Brown Street due to flooding. But Tuesday morning, with the sun beating down on the village, shop owners were out sweeping sidewalks of debris and residents were walking about.

Many shops in the village were open Tuesday, including Wickford Gourmet on West Main Street. According to owners Joe and Donna Dube, the store was under about 1.5 feet of water in the front and two feet in the back.

"In the 31 years we've owned the building, never have we had water in the front building," said Donna Dube. "It was really bad."

Luckily the night prior, the Dubes returned to the shop to lift merchandise up from the ground level to the shop's second floor. Donna said the two had a "gut feeling" to return to the store to move the merchandise after dinner Sunday night.

Down the road at Green Ink, owner Bethany Mazza said the store was untouched by the flooding.

"We had sandbagged the front doors but hte water came up at least six to eight inches int eh front of the building," said Mazza. "I was on Facebook every three seconds last night looking for pictures and updates on Wickford."

Other businesses weren't so lucky, including Wickford Diner – which is closed as crews begin to repair storm damage.

"Without exaggeration, we probably had four feet of water in the basement," said Patricia Forrest of Wickford Diner. "It was big time flooding."

No food was stored in the basement, said Forrest, just dry goods, but it will take the diner a few days to clean up and get back up to speed.

One business that was surprisingly unaffected by the flooding was Beach Rose Cafe, which sits right next to the cove. A bevy of pictures taken Monday night show the water rising closer and closer to Beach Rose's deck and doorway. According to owner Tim Sharp, the inside of the store is "all dry."

Sharp said all of the chairs, tables and refrigerators were elevated in case of flooding. Sharp, anticipating power outages, donated all of his food to the North Kingstown Food Pantry so nothing would go to waste.

"That's the only reason I'm not open today: I don't have any food," said Sharp.

Though Sharp anticipated flooding and power outages, there was one thing he didn't see coming – the help of his regular customers. According to Sharp, a group of 10 regulars helped him prepare the store for the storm Monday morning, helping to move furniture around and put the refrigerators on blocks.

"I was pretty humbled to see everyone work that hard and stay that long to help," said Sharp. "When I came in this morning before 7 a.m., I had people waiting here to help me out."