LANSING, Mich. (WSYM) - Two Lansing restaurants are back open after record breaking floods forced them to shut down.
FOX 47's Cryss Walker spoke with owners and customers about this culinary come back.
February flood waters hit the area of Kalamazoo and Clippert Street very hard, leaving great damages on two restaurants, Green Dot and Steakhouse Philly.
Both establishments were forced to shut down but after over eight weeks out of business the customers are glad to see the doors back open.
“I have been counting down for them to be open again and I finally got my fix so I'm pretty pumped”, said Green Dot customer, Sarah Edwards.
Green Dot General Manager Tony Smith says the restaurant took a huge hit, losing about 25% of their employees and costing a million-dollars for recovery.
“It was unbelievable”, Smith said.
“We had three feet of water in here for four days so it was it was shocking, to say the least.”
Green Dot Executive Chef Les Molnar said he couldn’t believe the damages either.
“When we saw those flood waters it was really a gut punch for sure”, Molnar said.
“We knew we were in a flood plain and that it was a 100-year flood plain and we thought we had a few more years uh to go before anything like that happened.”
Charlie Semerlly from Steakhouse Philly says although the popular hang-out spot was left four-feet under water, he's grateful for the outpour of support from the community.
“From customers, just people in Lansing in general, the first day, flooded on a Wednesday night I had 100 phone calls, a hundred text messages, direct messages on Facebook, by the next day it was like 200 and 300, amazing”, Semerlly said.
If your home or business was damaged by the floods the federal government is offering low-interest flood recovery loans.
Copy the link here for more information: https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/
