As work continued on the broken water main, shutting down two lanes of Belair Road, word came that water service had been restored, but no was celebrating at the nearby Skipjack's Restaurant and Sports Bar after massive flooding shut it down.
"It doesn't look good,” said Owner Rich Remeta, “They've got 40 fans (and) five dehumidifiers trying to make sure we do not get mold. That's the number one concern right now and then we'll get the claims guys in here and see what equipment went down."
Remeta shot a cell phone video as water poured into the kitchen and throughout the building, prompting workers to use whatever they could find to try to stop it.
"We filled garbage backs up with crab seasoning trying to make human sandbags---anything to keep the water from coming in,” said Remeta, “It was just impossible."
Even those living on higher ground, who avoided the flooding, experienced some frustration of their own when police would allow them to drive out of the neighborhood, but stopped them a few blocks from their homes when they tried to return.
"We had no water,” said Mark Pomplon, “If we wanted to go the street to try to buy some water, we could do that, but then we'd have to carry that back to our houses, and there's a retirement community down at the end of my street---those people weren't allowed to get back to their houses. They had to walk. These people are 70 or 80 years old. It effected everybody."
Back at the restaurant, the outlook isn't good.
Drying the place out will take at least a week and it will take more time to repair all of the damage.
"Obviously the carpet has to get ripped out,” said Remeta, “They're talking about taking the walls off and then we'll just go from there."
Skipjack's had to cancel a wake yesterday with dinner for 50 people, it remained closed all day Sunday, which is one of its busiest days, and now the Memorial Day weekend is in jeopardy.
We're told its losses in business, alone, could top the $100,000 mark.
Meanwhile, workers have fixed the water main, but now there's a storm drain and the road to repair and no one's sure how long that will take.
