CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Local businesses in Downtown Corpus Christi are back to opening their doors after days of anxiety over Tropical Storm Beryl.
Although the storm passed us by, several establishments are feeling the effects of the storm's path. Many closed their doors and boarded up windows for protection, but thankfully, the city was spared.
Some businesses remained closed on Monday, but others took in some customers. House of Rock is one of the businesses that were impacted but said they plan to get back to normal soon.
“Business suffered a little bit. We closed on Saturday that we normally do 700 people for," Casey Lain, the owner of House of Rock said. "Still had a good time with it, but then yesterday we shut down about halfway through the day, just due to the lack of business and some of the staff needed to prepare their homes.”
On Monday, crews began unboarding the venue’s windows ahead of the evening reopening. Lain said when storms happen, he and his team typically have a game plan, with the safety of their customers and employees first.
“This time of year, it’s always on the undermine," Lain said. "There’s a lot of storms that happen every year, so we just keep an eye out as soon as something develops we start looking at the schedule, looking ahead and communicating with touring acts that are coming through and get a game plan. We’ve been through this, we’ve been here 19 years so we’ve been through a few of them, so we kind of have a game plan."
Water Street Oyster Bar is also back open for business. People trickled in for lunch on Monday, but owner Richard Lomax said they shut their doors on Sunday as a precaution. By doing that, it impacted one of the busiest weekends following the Fourth of July holiday.
“It really put a damper in the sales," Lomax said. "People started to hear about the storm. We started to feel it on Thursday, even on July 4. It was down in tourism, down in room nights and just the tone that was set with the abundance of caution had people leaving Friday.”
Lomax added that it could take some time for local businesses to recover from beryl, but he’s happy the storm wasn’t worse.
While we are the beginning of hurricane season, downtown business owners said they will remain proactive in their preparation for any upcoming storms.
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