I own the Red Clover Inn, and we were hit pretty hard by Hurricane Irene last fall.
The storm completely washed out Route 4 and cut off all access to the inn, which forced us to close our doors for a month. It was the beginning of fall foliage season -- our busiest time -- and we had to cancel our monthly wine dinner.
We were lucky that there was no damage to the inn itself, but we still lost almost $100,000 in revenue. That's a lot for a small business like ours. On the plus side, we were able to donate our food to some of our neighbors who were shut in by the hurricane.
We picked up our marketing efforts and have fully recovered. However, the growth we were experiencing before Irene has slowed. I think that in the long run Irene will actually help business because people are curious to see how much the landscape has changed around here.
I like to say that Mother Nature came in and rearranged the furniture.
Some small business owners say they're hiring but they can't find employees, despite millions being unemployed.
