Crazy video: Popular NJ Shore spot has massive flood damages to fix
⬜ Flash flood tore through popular Asbury Park business
⬜ Halting damage came ahead of spot's busiest season
⬜ Push is on to help staff out of work during repairs
In late September, flash flooding spread across much of eastern Asbury Park — from Ocean Avenue near the historic Carousel building, to spots along Lake Avenue.
Asbury Park Festhalle and Biergarten suffered surreal damages amid those heavy downpours — on top of rain-soaked grounds — as several feet of water came rushing through the building.
Water crashed into the popular restaurant and beer hall’s basement, caught dramatically on a security camera.
The force knocked heavy doors off their frames, and threw equipment weighing over a ton clear across the room, according to General Manager Nick Falco.
Once a series of industrial-grade pumps was able to clear the water, after 24 hours of running, the full extent of damage was discovered.
The water that tore through wasn’t just rain and brackish saltwater that had spilled beyond adjacent Wesley Lake — it was mixed with oil and other contaminates as the city’s sewer system had been over-run.
“So we had sewage wastewater in there as well — when it hit that category, health department and environmental said, everything’s gotta go,” Falco said to New Jersey 101.5.
That included $50,000 in barrels of beer stocked in the downstairs coolers, ahead of the establishment’s biggest season of the year — Oktoberfest.
Three weeks after the devastation, not only is the biergarten closed — some parts of the building still don’t have power back, Falco said.
He estimated damages at roughly $1.7 million in a separate interview with NJ.com.
The entire inside of the downstairs had been gutted by Friday, as the reconstruction gets underway.
A main concern right now for Falco and the beer garden’s owner are the 35 employees who are suddenly out of work, for the foreseeable future.
Falco said even collecting unemployment isn’t enough to makes ends meet.
So, they are talking with neighboring businesses and entertainers to try and put together a fundraiser to support the biergarden’s workers.
LOOK: The most expensive weather and climate disasters in recent decades
Gallery Credit: KATELYN LEBOFF
Report a correction 👈 | 👉 Contact our newsroom
LOOK: Which movies were filmed in New Jersey?
Gallery Credit: Stacker
LOOK: Most common jobs 150 years ago in New Jersey
Gallery Credit: Stacker