John Cavaliere was just finishing lunch at his Westville antique store and theater when the skies opened up. He looked outside and saw “manhole covers dancing on top of geysers of water” — and found that water pouring into his basement to ravage furniture, records, and tools.
Cavaliere’s Lyric Hall was pummeled by Friday’s flash flooding. Rain came down in sheets for less than an hour Friday afternoon, causing waters to rise around town. The rain filled streets, parking lots, and basements and left sinkholes in its wake.
David Sepulveda Photo
Cavaliere’s business suffered thousands of dollars of damage, he said. It’s a blow to a business that has become a hub for visual and performing arts in the neighborhood. (Click the play arrow to watch a video interview with Cavaliere made by David Sepulveda.)
Over the past several years, Cavaliere has worked to restore what was once a Vaudeville theater, just as he restores antiques in the rest of the historic building. The building is now a venue for plays, concerts, and dance parties — even a backdrop for filming music videos.
It’s the second flood in just over a year for Cavaliere. Lyric Hall was flooded in May of 2011, filling the basement with four feet of water. After that, Cavaliere said, he thought the Water Pollution Control Authority had made improvements to the stormwater system that would prevent it from happening again. He shelled out money to buy a new furnace for the basement, a furnace that’s now been destroyed by Friday’s flood.
“I’m heartsick,” Cavaliere said as he stood amid the wreckage of his basement workshop. Debris covered the floors, which were coated with a film of gritty muck. Cavaliere said he doesn’t like to think too much about what that sewer-born muck might be.
A moldering pile of destroyed LPs lies amid the wreckage.
Cavaliere said he’s lost a lot of tools, as well as a hand-picked collection of bits and pieces of furniture from the last 100 years — latches and knobs and keys, material that’s vital for his restoration business.
It’s an “incalculable loss,” he said. “It’s all shot. … In the blink of an eye.”
The kicker: He’s not insured for floods because Lyric Hall is in a flood plain. “The house always wins,” Cavaliere said.
There are some small victories. No client’s work was lost, and Cavaliere managed to salvage three pieces of antique furniture. In thigh-deep water, he and an assistant pulled out two “Stickley sofas” and a mirror-backed Victorian vitrine (pictured).
Cavaliere said he’s been amazed at the outpouring of support he has already received. A contractor acquaintance immediately offered to donate a Dumpster. There are plans to launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a new furnace. A scheduled Saturday dance party has turned into a fundraiser. The event—the “DiscOlympics Dance Party”—has a mash-up theme combining the Olympics and disco.
“And so we’ll celebrate,” said Cavaliere.
Mr. Cavaliere has my sympathies, he truly does; it's heartbreaking to lose history in a flood. But if you 1) are in a flood plain and 2) were just flooded last year, it seems logical that you would cease storing important items in said flood plain, and definitely not in the basement of such a property. It is unfortunate that this has happened twice and I sincerely hope that the lesson is now learned and it won't happen a third time. Some things are simply not replaceable, and it's a shame to lose them to preventable water damage.