STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Diana Petrone worked 12 hours every day for two months to reopen her store, Not Just Bagels, after nine feet of floodwater surged in during Hurricane Sandy and left kitchen equipment floating, knocked out windows and doors and stranded an employer and her employees.
“Every day that we’re not open is a day that we don’t have any income,” Ms. Petrone said last month, the day before Not Just Bagels was set to reopen. Ms. Petrone worked with her parents — with whom she owns the business — her fiancé and her employees to rebuild the Dongan Hills deli in fewer than 60 days.
“I felt like a zombie for the first couple weeks. I was going through it but I couldn’t believe it was actually happening,” Ms. Petrone added. Not Just Bagels was among the first businesses to reopen after being destroyed during the hurricane.
“To clean up the mess and the muck and the destruction takes weeks,” said Ms. Petrone amid a frenzy of preparation for the reopening. One woman fiddled with the new electric cash register. Ms. Petrone’s father rolled cinnamon-raisin and egg bagels with other employees in the back.
“You’re starting at negative 10,” Ms. Petrone said of the beginning of the recovery process. Her insurance company refused to assist her because she had not purchased flood insurance, and she was unable to gain assistance from FEMA and other government agencies.
She was also turned down for the city’s Quick Start loan and is still waiting on word from the Small Business Administration.
“It looked like a washing machine went off in here, and then a tornado hit the washing machine,” she said.
The reopened Not Just Bagels, with a tiled floor and repainted walls, includes new refrigerators and baking equipment, an expanded bakery and a steam table to improve the selection of hot food.
“Point to something, it’s new,” Ms. Petrone said.
And her regulars are back.
“It’s so nice to see everybody,” she said. “There were hugs and kisses all around.”
Ms. Petrone hopes her story serves as an inspiration to other businesses struggling to recover.
“I am so proud of us,” she said, fighting back tears as she gripped her 3-year-old daughter, Sophia, nicknamed the “bagel baby.”
“I am so proud of everything that we’ve accomplished.”
Not Just Bagels is one of scores of businesses that were forced to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy robbed them of clients, equipment or entire buildings.
In the first installment of a survey of Island businesses affected by the storm, only 18 reported they had returned to normal operations. Another 18 said they had partially recovered, with business owners working from home, rebuilding their stores or operating with limited equipment.
So much of the focus on recovering from Hurricane Sandy has been placed on Staten Island homeowners struggling to rebuild. But also impacted along the borough's shores were small businesses, the economic cogs so vital to the neighborhoods they served. Some sustained minor damage and were able to reopen not long after Sandy passed. But many remain closed while they make repairs -- all still holding to hope that reopening is a possibility. At least 50 businesses were impacted to some degree, according to the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce. To let us know if your business has reopened, e-mail Tracey Porpora at porpora@siadvance.com.
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