Hampton Roads businesses take hit from changing storm forecasts and evacuation order
An evacuation order early last week prompted many workers to leave town, said
Being short-staffed caused Taste to close early at a few locations Thursday. That was in addition to shutting down all eight restaurants Friday for a storm that never arrived.
In hindsight, Pruden, whose company employs 350 people, believes many people who fled the region and state could have stayed nearby, holing up at friends' houses.
"It was only kind of after the fact that people realized they could abide by the order and remain available for work," he said.
Pruden is one of many
Even as the storm moved south and meteorologists downgraded its severity, the executive order remained in effect until Friday, when the
Not only were some workers unclear about how far they had to go, but many businesses in Zone A seemed confused about whether the evacuation pertained to them or just residents.
Some remained open the entire week while others boarded up, taped their windows and sandbagged their doors. The sun was shining during many of those lost business hours.
Both properties are in Zone A.
"There were a lot of people who sought refuge here," said
State and local officials, however, did not enforce the order, he said.
"We understand that some folks may have concerns about the inconvenience and the fact that the evacuation and the storm track moved south," Caldwell said. "But the No. 1 priority was saving lives."
Planalytics, a
He compares the business disruption to other unforeseen problems, like a burst plumbing pipe that requires a closure for repairs. And it's not uncommon for businesses to have some kind of business-disruption insurance to cover such situations.
"The storm itself, you can argue, is an act of God," he said. "The decision to evacuate and close is a human one. So how do you account for that?"
Depending on the type of business, some probably were more affected than others. Many office-based businesses can keep humming with employees working from home, and productivity isn't significantly affected, Gold said.
But a mom-and-pop restaurant might be hit hard, especially if it remained closed during the entire four-day evacuation. The saving grace might have been that the order was lifted before the weekend, when many retail and entertainment businesses make the bulk of their sales, he said.
While some businesses may have gotten a raw deal from the inaccurate storm predictions, other businesses benefited from those emergency preparations. Grocery stores sold out of bottled water and toilet paper. Hardware stores moved sandbags and generators.
At Double Tap, a
"It's first come first serve," the store had said in a Facebook post Monday.
When storms shut down businesses, restaurant sales often don't get made up. While a shopper who wants to buy shoes Thursday probably will buy them Saturday, someone who wants a meal on Thursday isn't going to eat an extra meal to make up for it later.
At Pendulum Fine Meats,
He posted about it on Facebook, and customers showed up. While he nearly recouped Friday's lost sales, he believes his revenue was still down about 40 percent last week, due to 1 1/2 days of being closed and several regular customers evacuating.
But he's most concerned about his hourly employees, half of whom missed several days of work because they evacuated. They're going to be feeling the repercussions of
"I'm going to try to help them make back those hours," he said.
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