Sandy's Roadblock to Small Business

This story was written by Anna Scheblein.

Many small business owners across Long Island are still feeling the effects of Superstorm Sandy.  In the village of Bayville, Gerianne Reilly, owner of Over the Bridge, said the storm has made it difficult for customers to reach her store.

“There is barely anyone driving down my road anymore,” Reilly lamented. In addition to dealing with flooding, clean-up and lost inventory, Reilly’s small décor and gift shop has to deal with the loss of Bayville’s main access road, West Shore Road, which connects this tiny village to Oyster Bay and beyond.

Her store is on Ludlam Avenue, just before the Bayville Bridge, which connects to West Shore Road.  Superstorm Sandy destroyed part of the road in its wake, causing it to be closed to residents.

“My business has been down 25-30 percent since Superstorm Sandy,” said Reilly.  

She estimates that 90 percent of her business is from local residents.  She has a website on which she sells her gift and décor items, as well.  Flooding during Sandy ruined so much inventory due to that she’s had to take down the website for now.

After spending three weeks cleaning up and trying to restore her software programs after the storm, she opened her doors to Over the Bridge to find that the closing of West Shore Road posed a literal roadblock to sustaining her flow of customers.  She feels the storm left her store isolated and forgotten, she said.  

Reilly, an active member of the Bayville Chamber of Commerce, reached out to local politicians to make them aware that the closing of West Shore Road had negatively impacted small businesses like hers that are tucked away on the coastline of the North Shore of Long Island.  U.S. Rep. Steve Israel responded to Reilly’s letter, urging her and other small business owners to apply for government loans and grants.  In a News 12 interview in late February, Reilly stated that government loans won’t help because she already has too much debt.  In a later interview, Reilly said her main concern at this point is to keep her business viable by getting it back on the road to recovery.

Before Sandy hit, Reilly said that her store was situated on the roadway that many local residents use to enter and exit the village.  As Reilly explained, before the storm, hundreds of cars would pass her store, generating business.  Since the storm, the traffic flow has been directed toward the other end of town, which Reilly said has left her store “out of sight, out of mind.”  However, Reilly did say in a recent follow-up interview that she is confident that once West Shore Road is open to traffic in and out of Bayville again her business will be back on track.