How Flagler Beach’s restaurants dealt with the effects of Hurricane Dorian

Palm Coast Observer
Business

With Hurricane Dorian barreling toward Florida’s east coast, the business owners of Flagler Beach prepared for the worst.

Business owners were already dealing with the economic impact brought on by the construction along AIA — a direct result of the last two hurricanes to rip through Flagler Beach. A third storm could prove catastrophic for businesses.

County to survey business owners about Dorian impacts

Helga van Eckert, the director of the county’s Department of Economic Opportunity, doesn’t yet have firm data on the financial impact of Hurricane Dorian on local businesses: They’re still reaching out to her. But she knows it’s substantial.

“Being the big holiday weekend for the beach community, we’re expecting that it had quite a blow,” she said.

Her office, she said, is working with the county Tax Collector’s Office to get a survey out to local businesses about how they’ve been affected by the storm.

“The push now is to get people back out there and get them frequenting our establishments,” she said.

To help draw visitors back to Flagler Beach, the county’s Department of Economic Opportunity has teamed up with the county’s Tourist Development Council and local businesses to place a billboard on Interstate 95, near the county’s southern border. The county previously had a billboard, but it had been damaged in Hurricane Irma. The repairs on the structure have been finished, but the message portion, called the sleeve, has not been replaced.

Exactly what the new one would look like hasn’t yet been determined.

But the purpose, van Eckert said, would be to “promote that the businesses in Flagler Beach are open for businesses.”

“Once the design is final, it shouldn’t take long at all,” she said.

Restaurants, she said, were particularly affected because so many got rid of food.

“This times the restaurants were, unfortunately, recently aware from the last time that they would have leftover food, and so rather than see it go bad, they were having sales and promotional items,” van Eckert said. “There’s no doubt that they’ve suffered financially from that.”

–Jonathan Simmons

Although Dorian turned east back out into the Atlantic Ocean, narrowly missing Flagler, the effects from being forced to close for nearly a week were felt.

“It’s hard enough to run any business, let alone a restaurant, and be successful,” said Scott Fox, the owner of Tortugas Florida Kitchen and Bar. “This is taking a toll on all of us — personally, physically, emotionally, financially. We’re just fighting through it and just hoping to get through hurricane season without another disaster. It seems like all we’ve had is adversity. We’re trying to overcome one obstacle after another.”

Johnny Lulgjuraj, the owner of Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill, doesn’t really like to keep food in the freezer.

“We don’t do that here,” he said. “We believe in having fresh food always.”

With the threat of Dorian’s arrival, Oceanside staff cooked all of their food and donated it to first responders and other residents within the Flagler Beach community.

The goal was to wait until the last possible moment before shutting down. They wanted to be the last to close and the first to open — and they were close to doing so. But an 80-person staff made achieving that feat difficult.

“We had people who were scared for their lives,” Lulgjuraj said. “Whether they’re being truthful or not, it’s just one of those things where if you’re truly scared, we won’t hold you accountable.”

Oceanside closed after the bridge connecting Flagler Beach to the mainland was closed off. It reopened 7 a.m. Friday, Sept. 6, when the bridge was reopened and evacuation orders ceased.

Faro Beachside Eatery owners Dario Carbone and Alexia Tarantino followed a similar pattern. Their restaurant remained open until the bridge closed, and they were quite busy. They reopened on the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 5.

“Some places end up shutting down because of this. It’s absolutely difficult to deal with, but we’re in it for the long game. We try to do anything we can to survive.”

JOHNNY LULGJURAJ, owner of Oceanside Beach Bar and Grill

“Everyone told us that we’re going to lose power,” Carbone said. “That’s the biggest thing that we need to prepare for. Fortunately, with the menu we have, we don’t really have frozen stuff. It’s mainly fresh produce. It doesn’t take up too much space in a sense. It’s mainly going to just preparing for power outages.”

Business owners and residents alike are grateful that Dorian never made landfall. But the fact that Florida is just now approaching the peak of hurricane season is a cruel reminder that they’re not safe from the storms yet.

“We’re just praying to God that we’re spared another season,” Fox said. “Hopefully we can rebound from the previous three years. We just hope to be able to do what we do: operate a business without some sort of obstacle ending us.”