Ronny Jaramillo owns two restaurants on 5th Ave near 7th Street. He says the water barged in through the ground floor.
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"There's nothing you can do - just look at the water rise, go up, unfortunately," Jaramillo said.
Jaramillo owns Chela and Bar Crudo. Between the two, he estimates losing $20,000 worth of equipment in one day, which insurance does not cover.
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce tells Eyewitness News that hundreds of businesses suffered hefty losses.
"In many cases, we had whole commercial corridors that were flooded," said Randy Peers.
What makes the flooding even more painful, many of the Mom and Pop stores are still hurting from COVID. And in the last two years, crime has skyrocketed. Each time a window or a door is broken, it costs $1,500.
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Jaramillo says he has been hit about 20 times - that's $30,000 just to replace all the broken windows and doors - and that doesn't include the actual theft.
Jaramillo wears his heart on his arm, but the reality is he cannot sustain these losses month after month - no one can.
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