As water levels on some D.C. area rivers rose due to the recent heavy rain and storms, business owners in Georgetown Waterfront weren’t taking any chances.
Flood barriers went up, and stacked chairs and tables pointed to closed shops.
“We had to cancel everything,” Abadi Ismail, owner of Buster T Boats, said.
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He rents boats and provides tours of the Potomac, and had been banking on a big weekend with Mother’s Day and graduations.
But thanks to the rough river conditions, the entire weekend was a wash.
“Basically all of the reservations, whether future ones or existing ones, have been canceled because we really cannot take the boats out in the river. There is, you see all the tree logs and bushes are streaming down the river and that could be potentially dangerous to the passengers and to the boat’s safety as well,” Ismail said.
That means losing out on thousands of dollars – a substantial income for a small business. But Ismail said it was better to be safe than sorry.
“It’s a bad weekend, but mother nature has a different scene for us. We can’t say no,” he said.
So far, the area hasn’t seen reports of major flooding, but many property owners nearby will be watching very closely overnight.
