As a nor\u2019easter threatens New York City this weekend, businesses in some of Brooklyn\u2019s most flood-prone neighborhoods are taking precautions ahead of the expected heavy rain, strong winds and possible coastal flooding.<\/p>\n
At Nick\u2019s Lobster House in Marine Park, preparing for storms has become second nature. The waterfront restaurant has been operating at the same location for more than 70 years, giving managers plenty of experience dealing with severe weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was all planters before, and we ended up just cutting a large chunk of it and setting up storm drains,\u201d said manager and chef Dimitrios Karousis. \u201cSo the water will just flow right into the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karousis says lessons learned from past storms have helped the restaurant improve its flood mitigation efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has happened where we didn’t watch the storm drains and we didn’t prepare the right way,\u201d he said. \u201cOut of nowhere, I see the outside of the restaurant, and it’s like 4 feet of water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, storm preparation starts with clearing drains around the property and securing anything that could be picked up by strong winds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the outdoor patio. We have chairs and tables that are loose, you know, like the sails,\u201d Karousis said. \u201cYou want to make sure that all the patio chairs are put away and nothing goes airborne into the restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Coney Island businesses are preparing for another familiar threat – flooding.<\/p>\n
Employees at a deli on Neptune Avenue say they plan to rely on sandbags to help keep water out of the store. Even so, they know there\u2019s only so much they can do when conditions worsen.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people look at us and call this a safe haven,\u201d one employee said. \u201cThe supermarkets are closed. People still want diapers, food, water. We got to be open for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Workers say flooding in the area can quickly make it difficult for customers to reach the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a lot of the water coming inside of the store,\u201d the employee said. \u201cWe\u2019ll put the sand in front of the door, but you can’t stop it sometimes. It’s a lot of water and it comes right inside of the store. Customers can’t come in, can’t cross the street.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the storm still approaching, business owners say they\u2019d rather be overprepared than caught off guard.<\/p>\n
As Brooklyn braces for potentially dangerous weather conditions this weekend, many waterfront and low-lying businesses are taking steps now to protect their properties and serve their communities when they’re needed most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a nor\u2019easter threatens New York City this weekend, businesses in some of Brooklyn\u2019s most flood-prone neighborhoods are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-357144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}