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Business & Tech

Despite Extensive Flood Damage, Downtown Pub Reopens Quickly

Freezers, office computers, alarm system and thousands of dollars worth of food wiped out, but McLynn's owner opened his doors Tuesday night saying 'you just have to roll with it'

About the same time Hurricane Irene made landfall on Coney Island last week, Steve Keller, owner of , received a text from one of his waitresses. Power was out in downtown Springfield. Keller hurried to his restaurant, expecting to bail out a foot of water in his restaurant's basement, which houses his office and several freezers full of food.

“I did not think I was going to find 6 feet of water,” he said. 

“My first reaction was that we were screwed,” he added. “We were in a lot of trouble. I knew what was down there, and the extent of the water. I knew what water can do. I wanted to cry, but I didn't.”

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Keller immediately called the Springfield fire department to place his buisness on a list of places to be pumped out. He was fortunate that they came quickly, and once they did, it took 3 to 4 hours to pump all the water out of his basement.

Then came the cleanup.

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“All that food had to be thrown out,” he said. “My office computers, and everything basically that you could think of in an office room, all of my paperwork. Four freezers were lost, and thousands of dollars worth of food and paper supplies. Our alarm system had to be replaced, along with all of our electrical components down there.”

But in a little more than 48 hours, McLynn's reopened, serving almost a complete menu. At the Tuesday night reopening, tap water in Springfield was still not potable, so Keller had to purchase enough ice, bottled water and canned sodas to keep his business running. He also had to replace a lot of food and make sure that his staff was able to come into the restaurant before he could open his doors.

“We have a great loyal following,” he said. “Some were completely without power. A lot of them couldn't use their water. And the people who did have power were happy to get out anyway.

“Were glad to be open, glad to see all the familiar, glad to be up and running again. Some people had it better than us, some people had it worse. You just have to roll with it.”  

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