Washed out again: Fort Amherst Pub shuttered after second flood from upstairs business
Pub open just two days before flood forced closure, again
For the second time in four months, Evan Bursey showed up at work to find his bar flooded with water from an upstairs business.
The 25-year-old chef and owner of Fort Amherst Pub has been forced to shutter the bar once again, as water has cascaded down from above at an even higher rate than the first flood.
Bursey said when he arrived at his Water Street pub on Tuesday, water was pouring from the light fixtures.
"It's pretty much like taking the Aquarena baby pool and dumping it on top of the building from the inside," Bursey told the St. John's Morning Show.
"And probably still a little bit more. It's thousands of gallons of water."
Once again, his kitchen equipment is flooded and much of it is ruined. The deep fryers are filling up with water. The floors and walls are soaked.
'It's crippling'
"It's worse than what happened before," he said. "Before we had the floors come up, the walls come down, the ceiling come down. Everything got ripped to the studs. Just support beams. They're informing me it's a similar process."
Bursey opened the bar to the public on Nov. 4, after a four-month delay caused by the flood in July. His staff of 10 were trained and ready to start, only to be put on the sidelines. After just two days in business, they'll have to wait again.
"It's just heartbreaking," Bursey said. "It's crippling."
He'll now have to wait and see what can be covered by insurance, but he does not expect to recoup enough to cover the costs of everything he purchased brand new with bank loans.
He puts the blame on the landlord and the upstairs tenant, and said he expects more from them.
"I've been in this building since April," he said. "I've been able to open for two days in eight months due to external issues — two floods caused by the upstairs tenant and the landlord. At the end of the day, I don't know what someone could do to remedy how far this has gone."
Bursey expects to be closed until after Christmas.
With files from the St. John's Morning Show