More than a month after floodwaters ripped through Akron’s Merriman Valley, causing damage and closing businesses, most of the restaurants and retail stores that were affected by the deluge have reopened.
But many are still dealing with the after-effects of the Aug. 8 flood that hit that section of the city particularly hard. At least one business remains closed.
At Bricco Pub, owner Dave Sharp said he was lucky that a lot of the damage to the restaurant at 1841 Merriman Road came not from water coming into the building but from sewage coming up through the drains. That means insurance will cover the necessary rebuild after 70% to 80% of the floor of the restaurant was coated in the contaminated water, he said. He hopes to reopen before the end of October.
“Honestly, once I realized it was sewer water and not flood water, I wasn’t freaking out” since the restaurant didn’t have flood insurance, Sharp said. “The fact that we had the right coverage kind of saved us.”
Other businesses were not so lucky. Michael’s A.M. had about $60,000 worth of damage, owner Gary Porto said, after he had to tear out a mud-damaged rug and put a new floor in. The restaurant at 1562 Akron Peninsula Road was closed for five days.
“We had to clean everything from top to bottom,” he said.
Section of restaurant overlooking creek isn’t fit for customers: ‘We just move forward’
While he has asked insurance to cover the cost of cleaning and repair, Porto said the lost revenue cannot be recovered.
“I don’t think there’s any way for us to make it up; we just move forward,” he said. “We really do appreciate the community keeping the business going.”
The damaged floor in one section of the Noisy Oyster Pub, one of the hardest-hit businesses, was replaced by the landlord, said owner Jon Curtis. So was the soaked drywall. But the section of the restaurant that overlooks the creek that flooded into the dining area Aug. 8 still isn’t fit for customers, said Curtis, who called it “kind of unsightly at the moment.”
“Now it’s up to us to really give it a good cleanup, paint it, get it back up to serve people there,” Curtis said. “I don’t know how long it’ll take.”
The 22-seat area is sectioned off with a black tarp that’s serving as a makeshift wall. A GoFundMe fundraiser has raised nearly $8,500 of its $50,000 goal to help pay to rebuild the restaurant at 1375 N. Portage Path. Curtis said he’s not sure how much of the work he’ll be able to do himself and how much he’ll need to hire people for.
In the meantime, he squeezed about 10 more seats into the main area of the restaurant to try to make up for some of the lost seating — and the lost revenue for being closed for more than two weeks for cleanup.
“It’s going to take a lot to bounce back from it,” Curtis said. “We were jamming there for a little bit. For it to come to a screeching halt is a tad defeating.”
Still, he said, the community has been “great” and people have continued to come back, even with the tarp up and less elbow room in the main dining area.
Merriman Valley business owner: ‘I’ve never seen anything like it’
At Papa Joe’s Iacomini’s, a person who answered the phone said the restaurant at 1561 Akron Peninsula Road was affected by the floods but recovered and was lucky the result wasn’t worse. They didn’t elaborate on what damage had been done.
Elijah Wilson, a Subway employee, said the store next door to Michael’s A.M. was closed for about two hours the night of Aug. 8 after water came in the back door and flooded part of the interior. The next day, the owner came in and cleaned everything up, he said.
And at the BP at 1648 Merriman Road, sales associate Tyrese McBride said the floodwaters in the parking lot were so strong, they pushed a big green dumpster across the street to the railroad tracks and scattered the trash cans. One has yet to be recovered.
The store was closed for a day and the fuel pumps were affected, he said — the mechanism that lets people pay from the pump isn’t always working.
The National Weather Service said the torrential rainfall led to some areas that saw as much as seven inches of rain in certain areas. Across Summit County, hundreds if not thousands of basements were flooded, the organization said.
Sharp, with Bricco, said he saw floating cars as he drove on grass and sidewalks to get to the restaurant the evening of the floods. When the water receded, it left a thick layer of mud covering everything.
“We had a river running through the parking lot; there were waves crashing into the building,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Spokesperson: Most of Akron’s flood damage to personal property
The damage across Akron, though, was mostly to personal property — not structures, said Dan Tierney, spokesperson for Gov. Mike DeWine. As such, the total damages did not reach the threshold for federal help, he said, and the area affected by floods was not declared a federal disaster.
The state does not have the ability to declare an emergency except to suspend competitive bidding around purchasing, he said.
The Ohio Emergency Management Agency could not be reached for comment about any help it might be providing. Signal Akron reported previously that the Summit County Fiscal Office is offering deductions on the appraised property values for those who were affected by the flooding; no one from the agency returned phone calls seeking comment.