Valley Stream businesses, flooded by epic rainstorm, struggle to clean up, reopen

During a record-setting rainstorm last Friday, a sudden torrent of water began pouring in the front door of Sandra Clark’s party and wedding venue in Valley Stream.

The venue, Celebs and Stars Hall, was one of several Valley Stream businesses flooded that day by a storm that caused a river of rainwater to rush down Merrick Road, producing more than 2 feet of standing water.

By Tuesday, several businesses in the area were still cleaning up from the extreme weather event and had reopened.

The storm forced Clark to cancel upcoming birthday parties and baby showers for the weekend while she waits for insurance estimates and repairs. But one wedding scheduled for the day after the storm still went on.

“We worked all night to suck up all the water and worked our magic,” she said.

Clark made a dreaded phone call to the bride Friday night, telling her she would have to postpone her wedding the next day.

But the bride was insistent, after planning her wedding for two years, with airline tickets to her honeymoon waiting, she said somehow the wedding had to happen.

Clark worked through the night with a restoration company to clean the venue and move the wedding Saturday to 6 p.m. But toward the end of the wedding, the toilet flooded and the cleanup had to start all over again.

The rain also caused part of her roof to collapse and ruined her Mercedes parked on Merrick Road. She said she is still waiting for insurance adjusters to make repairs.

“The rain started pouring in. The water was rising and flooding down the street,” Clark said. “If it rains again, it’s going to come right through the ceiling.”

The epic storm dropped an estimated 9.06 inches of rain on Valley Stream Friday, as well as 8.89 inches at Kennedy Airport in Queens.

That airport rainfall surpassed the record for any September day set during Hurricane Donna in 1960, according to the National Weather Service.

Across the street from the wedding venue, at the Valbrook Diner, Anthony and Tommy DiStefano were preparing to reopen the restaurant Wednesday after their basement flooded, losing about $20,000 in food, Tommy DiStefano said. He called it “the icing on the cake” after the past three years emerging from the pandemic.

By Tuesday afternoon, the diner looked ready to open, with fresh cakes and cookies in the display case by the diner’s baker.

Perhaps worse than the lost food, the diner lost its weekend crowd and had to rush customers their checks and out to their cars before they closed Friday afternoon. The storm also caused the roof to leak, but the slightly elevated diner was mostly spared from floodwaters, Anthony DiStefano said. Two waitresses also lost their cars in the storm.

“It’s been chaotic. It’s been worse than Sandy,” he said. “It was so unexpected. The rain came out of nowhere.”

Next door to the venue hall, Jesse Cohen, manager of Seco Designs, a custom bathroom, kitchen and cabinet remodeler on Merrick Road, said they were still assessing their losses of inventory and warped wood from the storm.

Cohen said the flooding was so bad by early Friday afternoon that he and his employees were forced to flee early — with police and emergency responders closing down the road.

“There was 3 feet of water in the street,” Cohen said, noting he watched the rising water later on surveillance footage. “We got some into the shop, but I think we got lucky … It could have been a lot worse.”