Atlantic City Weekly

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ATLANTIC CITY — You could say that Hurricane Irene created a sort of perfect storm for the Jersey shore’s tourism business over the upcoming Labor day holiday weekend.


With a summer season that has been less than extraordinary for Atlantic City casino revenues, and just OK in terms of weather and business up and down the coast, gaming officials say that the combined loss of revenue for the city’s 11 casinos due to the state-ordered evacuation of Atlantic City and the subsequent closure of the casinos over this past weekend due to the storm is an estimated $40-50 million.


Add the loss of business revenue for the Boardwalk shops up and down the Jersey shore that were forced to close in preparation of the storm, and the billions of dollars in damage that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie estimates the storm caused the state over the “lost weekend” — which, ironically ended on Monday, on the sixth-year anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy in Louisiana and Mississippi — and although weather-wise Irene didn’t do much physical damage to Cape May, Sea Isle City, Atlantic City and other shore towns along the southern New Jersey coastline, the region was hit pretty hard by the storm and shutdown.


Of course, some businesses made out like bandits over the weekend during which most Americans on the East Coast — those who didn’t lose power that is — were glued to local TV and radio weather coverage or the Weather Channel on their TV sets.


While at least one gas station in the area reportedly hiked the price of gas as lines of cars waited to fill up on the Friday before the storm, other businesses selling plywood, water, batteries, candles and other preparation-kit tools, experienced brisk business on Friday and Saturday until they closed as Irene got closer to the Garden State.


One report stated that a Best Buy store in the Asbury Park area was selling cases of bottled water for $40 per 24 pack. 


Certainly not an example of the kind of camaraderie that was the norm over the “lost weekend” in the Atlantic City/Ocean City areas.


What made the weekend so wacko — aside from the crazy path that Irene took as she barreled up towards the Northeast — was that, like the earthquake that was felt in the Atlantic City region earlier in the week, a hurricane with the strength and size that Irene had initially — before it started to fizzle out late Saturday night and into early Sunday morning —  hadn’t been experienced in the region for decades. 


Christie, saying he didn’t want to risk lives, called for a mandatory evacuation of Cape May County and parts of Atlantic County. 


Although the pending storm and the evacuation order drove out countless visitors and residents in the area, some stayed put, including 600 senior citizens at an Atlantic City high-rise complex whom Christie eventually addressed directly during one of his many TV appearances and YouTube videos over the weekend, essentially begging them to leave.


With the rising death count from Irene still being determined — as of Wednesday Irene had been blamed for at least 43 deaths in the continental U.S. and five deaths in the Caribbean, according to reports — and with most deaths occurring out of state, Christie certainly must feel right with himself that he made the correct call in evacuating the barrier islands and the vulnerable areas in the southern parts of the Garden State. 


Although more than 300,000 New Jersey power customers still had no electricity as of Tuesday — when more deaths in the state were reported — and as flooding still plagued many parts of New Jersey, the southern shore area fared pretty well during the Irene event.


After the storm, crews quickly went to work tending to downed trees, closed roads, and affected power, telephone and cable lines in the area. And while evacuees return to the beaches and boardwalks along the Jersey shore, tourism officials hope that the good weather forecast, combined with the many vacations cut short due to Irene, will equal a successful Labor Day weekend.


Some businesses, however, will hurt for a long time due to Irene and the “lost weekend.” 


Musicians and DJs, for instance, hundreds of whom were booked up and down the Jersey shore last weekend, will never see payment for the gigs that got canceled over the typically busy summer weekend.


Area restaurants and shops that rely on tourist dollars during the summer may have lost up to a total of four or five days of much-needed business.


In Somers Point, for example, the owner of the venerable Clam Bar on Bay Avenue was forced to get rid of all of the restaurant’s fresh seafood on the Friday before the storm and board up the waterfront eatery before getting out of dodge.


“Hopefully, we’ll be open on Tuesday, and everything will be fine,” said Patrice Popovic, owner of the Jersey shore seafood mainstay.


Popovic said that because the restaurant had to get rid of all its seafood and ingredients, that the place would have to “start from scratch” on Monday and prepare for a Tuesday opening. 


Still, that’s four days of big-time summer business out the window.


“We’ve never closed in more than 30 years,” added Popovic as she was pulling out of the Clam Bar parking lot, her establishment in the midst of being boarded up. “But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”


That seems to be the mode of thought for many local business owners, as well as residents and tourists who were forced from the area as a precautionary measure.


Dennis Gomes, co-owner and CEO of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, also started early to get his property ready for the storm and evacuated. 


He tells Atlantic City Weekly that there were no reported injuries to anybody on the Resorts team over the weekend.


“Everybody [at Resorts] is good,” says Gomes during a Monday afternoon phone call. “There were no problems [with injuries to anyone]. And we had no damage. We got all of the employees out Thursday night except for a few emergency personnel and security and a few building maintenance people. Everyone else was gone and we got all of our customers out. We started getting them out Thursday night and by Friday at noon they were all gone.” 


Gomes says that Resorts took a pro-active approach with regard to the Irene threat early on because he trusts the authorities and figured it was better to evacuate early so the re-opening could happen as early as possible.


“Some of the people were kind of wondering what to do. Coming from a kind of law-enforcement background — I spent 10 years doing law enforcement chasing mob guys — and so I listen to the police. There are people in the [police department] that I have good relationships with and when they’re telling me about all of the issues [on Thursday] I decided that I didn’t want to play around with people’s lives — employes or customers. I mean the revenue loss killed me, especially because we are so vulnerable as we’re trying to claw our way back after almost closing down before we bought it, but when it comes to material things versus people’s lives there is no comparison. It wasn’t even an issue. We just decided to move forward and get it done quickly and in a very systematic way. That’s just how we are I guess!