Anthony Catanese, a small-business owner and resident in Mamaroneck, had an urgent request for U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and the entourage of federal, state and county officials who visited his flood-ravaged neighborhood beside the Mamaroneck River last week: We need help in any amount.
Among an estimated 300 to 400 Mamaroneck businesses damaged in the April flood, Catanese, a machinist, lost a research engineering shop he rents on Hoyt Avenue and his Fail-Safe Systems on Center Avenue, a machine shop where he rebuilt obsolete automated equipment for the maritime industry. The fast-rising river in his backyard also blew out the massive stone foundation of his 160-year-old house on First Street, ruining irreplaceable antique machines in his cellar and file cabinets that held ocean tankers”™ blueprints and other records vital to his business.
“The total machine shop is wiped out,” he said, after speaking on the street with Clinton and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator R. David Paulison, who toured Mamaroneck and other flood-stricken areas last week to assess whether to recommend that President Bush declare Westchester and 11 other New York counties a federal disaster area. “I just cry every time I go over there,” Catanese said. “At least $100,000 of tools and equipment totally wiped out. They”™re all going to be in the scrap pile.”
Like many Westchester business owners, Catanese was told his insurance policy does not cover his losses from flooding. “Nada, nothing at all,” he said. “That”™s why we need the help.”
President Bush last week declared a disaster for Westchester, Rockland and Orange counties. A FEMA official said other counties might be added to the disaster area after the damage surveys are completed.
Paulison said homeowners can receive up to $28,200 in grants for losses not covered by insurance, while communities can be reimbursed for damage to public infrastructure. The disaster assistance is “very limited, but it does help out,” the FEMA chief said.
Yet the low-interest federal loans for which small businesses in the disaster area are eligible are not what”™s needed, Catanese and other idled Mamaroneck business owners said.
That was the message Catanese said he gave Gov. Eliot Spitzer during an earlier neighborhood tour, when the governor told him the U.S. Small Business Administration would offer loans at 2 percent interest. “On the TV I can get one for 1 1/2 percent,” Catanese said he told Spitzer. “I don”™t need a 2 percent loan. I need someone to clean up this —-.”
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Anthony Sutton, commissioner of the county Department of Emergency Services, also heard the machinist”™s plea for help. He agreed with those small-business owners who scoffed at the federal loans that might be offered them.
“A lot of these people were hit by the March flood,” he said. “They”™re just coming back. Loans are not the answer. They need more.”
At a press briefing outside the flood-damaged home of a neighbor of Catanese, Clinton said she will work with Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, and Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano to create a public charity to receive financial contributions and get them to county residents “without any red tape.” The charity program will be administered by the county.
“It”™s not the amount, it”™s just the idea that someone”™s going to come in and help,” Catanese said. “You”™ve paid all these taxes all these years and now somebody”™s going to give you something back.”
While some fed-up neighbors have already put their damaged homes on the market, the machinist said he plans to stay in Mamaroneck and stay in business there.
“Where am I going to go? Albuquerque? I walk down the street and I know everybody here.”
“I”™m over 60,” he said. “I”™m too young not to keep working and too old to change my lifestyle.”
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”˜It”™s going to happen again”™
On Mamaroneck Avenue, Freddie Santiago had hung a wet and soiled American flag from the open front door of his Home Plate Luncheonette.
“I got the mud out,” he said amid the clamor of cleanup equipment on the congested avenue, his lank black hair wrapped in a bandanna. “It took me three to four days.”
A former outfielder in the Boston Red Sox minor-league system, the Bronx-born Santiago has lined his restaurant walls with Yankee photos and memorabilia. They had largely survived the flood that closed his and scores of businesses on the Mamaroneck Flats and had him working 12-hour days with mops, brooms and heavy trash bags in the first week of recovery.
“Now, I don”™t got no income coming,” he said.
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“I”™m not a politician. I”™m not an engineer,” he said, alluding to how the damage from the predicted nor”™easter might have been averted. “But don”™t you clean out the sewers?”
Santiago said his business insurance does not cover flood damage. He will not know whether his kitchen equipment must be replaced until electricity is restored.
Like other business owners on the Flats, the restaurant owner was optimistic that he could reopen sooner than officials might predict. “I could be ready in two weeks,” he said. “I”™m ready to go, with or without the government or the law or my landlord.”
“It”™s been going on forever,” he said of the flooding. “This is the first time I got it in 24 years here.”
“Nothing”™s going to be done,” he predicted. “It”™s going to happen again. I”™m just sorry that people lost their life savings.”
A few doors down the avenue, Bob Thompson stood outside the Just Digital 2 store he manages. He was waiting for an insurance adjuster and for digital equipment leasing agents “to declare the machines deceased, if you will.” The expensive machines were piled at the curb.
“Everything” was lost in the flood, he said. “Every piece of equipment.” Thompson estimated the loss at more than $250,000. Owner Sal Cucciarre, who operates another Just Digital store in the Bronx, did not carry flood insurance.
“I”™ve been doing business in this area for 20 years,” Thompson said. “I have never seen anything like Mamaroneck Avenue with water across from storefront to storefront, flooding out basements and storefronts in its wake.”
“I definitely think it”™s due to overdevelopment,” he said, an observation shared by some of his business neighbors, “and maybe looking the other way by developers and public officials.” Large buildings with multiple apartment units that replaced single-family homes in the village have overburdened sewer lines and created more surface runoff, Thompson said.
Across the avenue, Marney Ranani-Nigro, owner and director of Nana”™s Kids, estimated the flood loss at $100,000 at her day-care center for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years. Plastic toy tricycles, strollers and cribs were piled at the curb while workers removed waterlogged wall panels and flooring.
“We have nothing,” she said. “I don”™t even have a crayon. I have three staff who don”™t have a home.”
Still, “We”™ll be back in business in three weeks,” she predicted. “All we need is money.”
Ranani-Nigro said donors may contact her by e-mail at nanaskids615@aol.com.
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”˜Act of God”™
In Hartsdale, another hard-hit Westchester community, a block of 13 businesses was closed and without power on East Hartsdale Avenue. At the HSBC branch, a sign on the front door said the bank would remain closed until approximately May 7.
At Harrys of Hartsdale, a popular steakhouse and oyster bar on the business strip, owner Steven Palm stepped across a skim of muddy water on a tiled cellar floor while a demolition contracting crew noisily knocked down walls and hauled away debris.
“This was a functioning restaurant down here as much as the restaurant upstairs,” Palm said. Floodwater destroyed a mahogany wine cellar, full-size kitchen, three walk-in coolers and the restaurant”™s audio and computer systems. “Everything has to be replaced,” the owner said.
Palm estimated his business losses at $350,000 to $450,000. It will cost about $350,000 to rebuild, he said.
Palm said though he had flood insurance in his policy package, it only applies to water main breaks or burst pipes. “Insurance is not picking up anything,” he said. “They consider this an act of God.”
Palm, who also owns the Underhills Crossing eatery in Bronxville, opened Harrys of Hartsdale seven years ago. “It was $1 million to get the restaurant to where it was, and now it”™s all gone,” he said.
Palm said he hoped to reopen on a small scale in six or seven weeks, “so at least we can generate some revenue to pay for this.”
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