Wednesday, September 10, 2008

This year's active storm season is eating into the profits of local businesses in an already difficult time of year. Visitor and resident evacuations have some business owners dipping into their contingency funds -- or at least glad they have funds set aside for just such an occasion.

"For myself, there is some money in the budget for something like this," said Richard Barbee, owner of Pasta in Paradise restaurant on Simonton Street in Key West, which opened less than a month ago. Barbee closed his eatery on Sunday and hoped to reopen today.

"The past two weekends have been not bad, but they could have been a lot better," he said.

Barbee said he has funds budgeted in case a storm comes through and keeps him out of business for an extended period of time.

"Obviously, your labor is in there, your rent's always in there, and if you lose your food, then you have to replace your food," he said. "At that point, you're talking about replacing $10,000 to $15,000 in food."

Barbee said a storm contingency fund is necessary if a business hopes to make it through hurricane season.

"If you prepare for the worst and the worst doesn't happen, then you're ahead of the game," he said.

Key West City Commissioner Mark Rossi, who owns Rick's/Durty Harry's entertainment complex, agreed. He puts away a hurricane contingency fund each year.

"I've learned years ago that you have to have one," he said. "It's risk management."

His contingency fund usually includes at least two weeks of payroll, operating cash and the mortgage payment for his building.

"I'm like a squirrel in March and April," Rossi said. "I take my nuts and I put them away for hurricane season like a squirrel putting his nuts away for winter."

He said despite his preparations, it's still difficult to make ends meet when the storms are frequent and follow close after one another.

"After three consecutive weeks of storms, your funds tend to get depleted after that," he said. "It's hard to prepare for three or four or five storms."

Rossi said this storm is reminiscent of what happened with Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. In that case, county officials ordered an evacuation of the Florida Keys in advance of the storm, which was expected to hit the Keys as a Category 4. As with Hurricane Ike, Ivan's track changed, and the storm went west of the Keys.

"This reminds me of Ivan," Rossi said. "There's no business, there's nobody here. Nobody's spending any money."

Rossi said his bars have remained open, but business has been "horrendous."

"I'll be working six to eights months from now to cover this," he said.

Andrea Morgan, co-owner of Eaton Street Seafood Market, said she knows there's a faction of business owners around town who believe county officials tend to overreact when it comes to evacuations, but she does not believe that is the case -- especially after the unpredictable path that many storms have taken since 2004.

"I know so many of my friends and customers who didn't have a chance to board up," for Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she said.

Katrina surprised many Keys residents when it took an unexpected southerly turn after emerging from the Everglades, bringing fierce winds, rain and flooding overnight while many people slept, unprepared and unaware of what was happening until it was too late.

Morgan said she is not frustrated or angered by the evacuations.

"I don't always agree with them," she said.

"But I sell fish for a living, and those people make decisions about people's health and safety for a living. And I respect their call on those very important decisions."

A handful of businesses remained open throughout Key West on Tuesday, mostly out of boredom or as a service to the people who wandered out to check out the weather or get some fresh air.

Despite the howling wind and bouts of driving rain, Mary Broman was at her perch in Baby's Coffee on U.S. 1 Tuesday morning, waiting to help any customers who might want to dash in from the rain for a hot cup of coffee.

"It's very slow, but we open as a community service," said Broman, general manager, adding that the store doesn't make much money, but that's not the point.

"We want people to be able to get their Baby's Coffee," she said. "I have such a huge response from people. They're just so thankful that we're open."

As with most businesses in the Keys, Broman said the weather and evacuations would affect the store's bottom line.

"That's life in the Keys," she said with a sigh.

amswary@keysnews.com