ST. LOUIS — Some businesses in St. Louis got hit twice by flooding during this week and now cleanup is underway.
Friday morning, crews inside Kingside Diner in the Central West End tried to clean up the mess left behind.
"We had about three to four feet of water all throughout our basement where we have prep kitchens, offices and storage," said Owner Aaron Teitelbaum. "It's about 5,000 square feet worth of water we had to clean up Tuesday."
On Tuesday, the shop felt the effects of the historic event of record rainfall.
However, on Thursday, Mother Nature wasn't done.
"After cleaning everything up, it flooded again. And this time water wasn't just coming from the drains, we had to sandbag our front door because it was coming through the door because the storm drains were too clogged," he said.
Kingside Diner was forced to closed for almost three days.
Teitelbaum said they lose about $8,000 to 10,000 a day when closed.
He's filed an insurance claim, but they still felt the financial blow.
"With the loss of sales and pay, that's around $30,000," he notes.
It's another hurdle in these already difficult times.
During the pandemic, Kingside Diner in the Central West End closed for a few months. Then the store moved a few doors down and re-opened in April of 2021.
Teitelbaum is just one of the many owners dealing with the ripple effects of the pandemic, too.
"It is a different world that restaurants are living in. Food has never been more expensive, labor has never been more expensive," Teitelbaum said.
However, when this latest crisis hit, he said he was ready to act.
"It’s gotten to a point, we are just used to these kind of things. We have become more accepting that this has become part of our life," he said.
Fortunately, after extensive cleaning, Kingside Diner hopes to re-open Saturday.
Brennan's, which is a few doors down, made a Facebook post talking about its closure Thursday but was able to re-open its doors for a busy Friday night.
Down the street, Left Bank Books' owner also adjusts to the adversity.
"We have never experienced the kind of flooding that we have experienced this week," co-owner Kris Kleindienst said.
It's been open on the corner of Euclid and McPherson since 1977 and this is the worst she's seen it.
Kleindienst and her crew cleaned up Tuesday's mess, and then Thursday hit.
"Those of us downstairs in the office, suddenly the floor drains started bubbling and surging and we were standing in water. Within 20 minutes the entire lower level, every part of every space was under six inches of storm sewer backup," she shares.
The downstairs of the store is the basement but it also acts as a lower retail section, which includes offices.
She said they tried to save everything they could, and Friday morning was a race against the clock to protect the books.
"We have paper here and paper absorbs moisture. We have a soaking wet soggy splashy carpet down there. We haven’t lost all the books yet," Kleindienst adds.
Kleindienst is used to rolling with the punches because of the pandemic.
"In retail, our unique challenges, we have certainly developed some skills and muscle to deal with this," she said.
Now, she's ready to turn the page by shifting to shopping online 24/7 or placing an order over the phone.
"We made that pivot with COVID and we thought we were done with that and apparently no, it's going to be a survival skill that we will be needing," she noted.
She says they are working hard to get in-store browsing up and running as soon as possible.
She said they may need to keep the downstairs closed off with the potential of replacing the shelves.
The biggest message from both business owners is to support local if you can during these challenging times.
"It is definitely more important than ever to shop local, if you can," he said.
If you'd like to help, the Left Bank Books website has a flood recovery donation page here.