VIRGINIA BEACH
Inside Alexander's on the Bay on Friday, it looked like a monster broke up a dinner party. Tablecloths and plates lay on the floor. Windows were shattered. The bar and storeroom lay crumpled onto the eroded beach.
The monster, a nor'easter responsible for flooding across the region, caused damage to the locals' beaches and favorite spots facing the Bay along the northern shore of Virginia Beach. At Alexander's, it left behind salty water in dinner glasses and tracked sea grass to the back of the kitchen.
Nestled at the eastern end of the Lesner Bridge, Bubba's Seafood Restaurant and Crabhouse took on water up to owner Dimitri Hionis' knees. Pounding waves pulverized 400 feet of the Lynnhaven Fishing Pier, a bigger chunk than Hurricane Isabel stole.
As glass bits snapped off in the soaked carpet Friday, Alexander's owner Denice Shafiee surveyed the damage, which will run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The deck was broken apart. Part of the house next door had crashed into the side of the restaurant, and a fireplace was reduced to bricks among the debris of the collapsed bar.
The casual-dining seafood restaurant is a staple of Chic 's Beach. It is the site of the original hot dog stand that gave the beach its name in the 1950s. The current building was reconstructed in 1993 after a fire.
Sous chef Warren Newsom, who lives across the street, could see that the bar roof had collapsed when he looked out his window Thursday night.
On Friday, he climbed down into the bar area, which remained a jumble of chairs and carpet. What once was the bar area hung off the building at an angle. He pulled out a leather-bound backgammon set with a felt interior and wiped salt off the top.
"It's amazing this survived," he said.
Employees hauled out bottles of beer, wine and hard liquor with wet, crumpled labels. Every few minutes Shafiee rushed outside to warn trespassers away from the eroded parking lot, where live power lines lay. A space that once held 77 cars was gone, leaving a chewed-up shoreline that could fit about 12 vehicles.
Shafiee said she has insurance and hopes to reopen in about three months. That means the restaurant will be closed through the annual "Santa Count" this year. Every holiday season, the restaurant displays several thousand Santas, and patrons spend $1 to guess the total. The winner gets a $100 gift certificate, and the money goes to charity.
"We're very sad we won't be able to do that this year," Shafiee said.
Across the Lesner Bridge, the 1,400-foot Lynnhaven Fishing Pier collapsed in two places. The final 300 feet of the pier that disappeared into the Bay late Thursday was also shorn off during Hurricane Isabel. This time, a hundred-foot section about 200 feet from the awning of the Pier Cafe also tore away.
From inside the Lynnhaven Fish House next door, executive chef John Chapman got misty-eyed looking at the damage. He saw on television that the pier fell Thursday evening and feared the restaurant would be gone as well. But it was completely intact. Even the fish-shaped glass suncatchers that have hung in the windows for years were in place, clinking slowly against the glass.
Barbara Cashman Duff, whose family owns the pier, said the shorter section that collapsed may have been built on pilings from the 1956 construction. The unrelenting pressure of crashing waves did it in, she said.
"You might as well have been out there hitting it with a sledgehammer." She hopes to complete about $200,000 in repair work in time for a May 1 opening. Bubba's and Lynnhaven Fish House both plan to reopen today.
Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com
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cwojda
CWOJDA speaks the truth from what I've seen in Texas and Louisiana. It was Democrat Governor Kathleen Blanco & Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin (New Orleans) who did nothing to help before or after Hurricane Katrina hit--except sit around and point fingers or even obstruct Federal assistance. At least it appears that Governor Kaine is taking the aftermath of this storm seriously. As far as the crime rates--Houston's murder rate skyrocketed because the Katrina evacuees included gang members who shot and killed each other after arriving in Houston. The Katrina evacuees committed about 25% of all the homicides--amazing when you consider they were only 150,000 new residents in a metropolitan area of several million people. They brought their violence to Texas with them but in Texas people are prosecuted for crimes and incarcerated if convicted. In New Orleans criminals walk free. It is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, quite frankly.
NO YOU JUST DON"T GET IT
fermezlabouche, since you brought up defending Bush on Katrina, it is simple. The federal government is not the first responder to natural disasters, the state is. Since the Democratically controlled state and city responses were dismal failures, the feds then stepped in. Also the best thing that ever happened to New Orleans was the 9th Ward washing out to sea. Unfortunately, Texas got more than our share of the rif raf and criminals to take care of, and we got to watch the crime rate in Dallas and Houston soar.
You build on the water, you take your chances
Mother Nature doesn't discriminate against any political party. Bringing politics into what happened this past week is completely ridiculous and won't do a thing to stop another storm from battering the region.
What will work to lessen the damages is people waking up to the cost of building next to the shoreline. With the federal government funding all flood and major storm damage insurance now for places that are on flood plains or directly in coastal areas, it means all taxpayers are paying for those that decide to build in these threatened areas. It is time to stop insuring those that do build in these areas unless they can get private insurance companies to fully pick up the costs. People who build in coastal areas need to take full responsibility for choosing to build there and not expect others to pay for their misguided choices.
Not a big loss. .
Alexander's on the Bay's food was less than mediocre.
Ida and Isabel Tore us UP!
What's up with the 'i' storm names. Okay, technically it was a nor'easter and not a tropical system, so i'll call it Nor'Ida. This storm was comparable to Isabel or maybe even a little worst. Man, just a couple months later and this would have been the Blizzard of the Century for Hampton roads....at LEAST 3 feet of snow!!
Nor'Ida
I dubbed this storm Nor'Ida for two reasons.
Nor'Easter powerful enough to be deserve a proper name.
Remnants of Hurricane Ida added significantly to the punch.
It's a conjuction. Nor'Easter + Ida = Nor'Ida
Why do some "yokels" insist everything be turned into a...
political insult? You just don't get it. The politicization of storms started with an all-out assault on George Bush the Elder after Hurricane Andrew and continued with Jorge Bush during Katrina. Now that the Liberal Democrat Barack Obama is in office, Obama "yokels" need to get used to it coming their way. It's just that simple.
No, you just don't get it.
The hair-trigger response to blame Obama, Bush, the Democrats, the Republicans, whoever based on your political persuasion... it's getting to the point of absurdity. There are plenty of opportunities to criticize Obama, justified or not, but in either case it's not relevant to this article. Read the article again; it's just not. Why not take it somewhere else?
However, since you bring it up, I would be interested in hearing your defense of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina immediately following the storm.
Nor'easter? Please!
Nor'easter? Are you kidding me? This is Hampton Roads not Tangier Island or Maine. It's NORTHEASTER. Why don't you say there was lots of 'ain (rain) and 'ind (wind) with this 'orm (storm)? Please stop using this idiotic colloquial term. If our local reporters keep this up the
Gorton's fisherman may file a cease and desist order.
Nor'Easter
Nor'easter? Please! Please stop using this idiotic colloquial term. If our local reporters keep this up the
Gorton's fisherman may file a cease and desist order."
If this colloquialism is so offensive to you, perhaps it's because you're not familiar with its history:
The London Company (aka the Charter of the Virginia Company) and the Plymouth companies were both chartered in 1606 grants by England's James I to explore and settle "The New World" with the stipulation that neither was to found a settlement within 100 miles of the other.
The London/Virginia Company under the leadership of Christopher Newport arrived in April 1607 right here at Cape Henry in what is today's City of VA Beach, and went on to establish the first successful English colony at the Jamestown Settlement on May 14th, 1607.
The Plymouth Company preceded the Plymouth Council for New England, which under the supervision of the Dorchester Company, founded by a group of investors from Dorset County, England and chartered by James I organized an expedition which founded the village of Gloucester at Cape Ann in 1623. The settlement was unprofitable and lost its financial backing in late 1625, settlers re
I guess
You don't know much about the history of language....you might want to look in to it and re-think what you posted.
Northeaster
I'm well aware that Nor'easter is an informal form of Northeaster.
You guess I don't know much about the history of language? I'm certainly
no expert, but I do know what sounds ridiculous. I suppose you are a linguistics professor?
My husband and I had our
My husband and I had our first date at Alexander's and we love it there. We look forward to dining there again next spring.
Puleese!
Why do some yokels insist everything be turned into a political insult? Small, very small minds with NO vision, compassion, or insight. Please, work on your negativity--I does shorten lives besides making everyone else miserable.
Isn't disaster a time when we should pull together?
take a breath...LOL
Not one time in this article did I read where someone was whining. It was a story about the damage and the future repairs that will be necessary. I'm certain they knew the dangers, that's why they have the coverage. And if the insurance companies pay too much that's their fault for not being more efficient in their estimating. Now, what does bother me are the people who DO complain about damage and repairs when they DON'T have coverage (and could have). Those are the stories that I whole-heartedly agree with your opinion.
Whine! Whine! Whine!
Most people have insurance which will pay for damage. Those people who live, build near the waters knew the risks involved. They enjoy the waters when things are nice and need to expect damage when things are bad. People who prosper and make money off business near these waters like Lynnhaven fish house ,Alexanders, and Bubbas make alot of money off those properties. Like I said most have insurance. Let's also get real people. In a lot of situations people make out after these disasters. Insurance companies over pay people. Older stuff gets replaced with newer and better stuff. It all works out. Off course there are those who are not prepared. People who were too cheap to not have the proper insurance. People who did not take the time to tie down thier boats or move them to safer places. People who took risks and lost. This is life people. You could be living somewhere else like Iraq.....Quit your CRYING and be thankful you have a "President who walks on water".
Reconsider
The people whose businesses were destroyed were not whining, but even if they were consider that instead of running a business they love they have to spend months dealing with insurance companies, permit processes (which may require substantial upgrades in parts that were not damaged at all), contractors, loss of business, and the loss of jobs of the people that worked for them. Many good employers, especially in this type of business, feel a real responsibility toward their employees and this is painful for them.
Instead of whining yourself, why don't you see if you can help them.
(This writer has never even been in any of the establishments mentioned.)
Pshaw.
Maybe if Barack Obama really could walk on water, then he could've also prayed away this storm.
I mean, seriously. I didn't sense that the owners and employees were whining in this article at all. If anything, there was sadness because of the memories and hard work that people put into their businesses. It's not like the local nameless, faceless Wal-mart was damaged here. But it happens when you're that close to the water, and I'm sure that all of them would've liked to have their stuff as it was before and not have to deal with insurance companies (if they had insurance at all -- I heard that the Lynnhaven pier was not insured because the cost was too prohibitive).