North Andover business owners are still struggling to recover after Tuesday's flooding.
On Thursday, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) along with other elected officials toured businesses along High Street assessing the damage.
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“This situation deserves a massive response - everybody here has been severely impacted,” said State Sen. Bruce Tarr after walking through restaurants with shattered windows and soaking wet floors.
The damage extends throughout several buildings on High Street, closing down several businesses including Vamp Lash and Beauty Bar, Good Day Cafe, Jaimes Restaurant, and even a location for the national nonprofit Brides Across America.
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The Town of North Andover is currently seeking disaster assistance programming to aid residents and business owners. The town sent out a Smart911 alert text asking neighbors to submit their damages. When NBC10 Boston inquired and when neighbors could potentially see this funding, we were told it wasn’t the assistance wasn’t approved yet.
“No no nothing's been approved yet,” Moulton said. "It’s still very early stages all the assessments are just being made.”
Several business owners here say they did not have flood insurance because in the past this area was not prone to flooding. Unfortunately, even for those who do have insurance, they still aren’t receiving enough financial support.
“Even if you have insurance it’s not clear that this kind of incident will be covered,” said Tarr.
Along with trying to receive financial assistance, business owners are also scrambling to cleanup leftover floodwater which is now creating health concerns in the area.
“There’s a lot of bacteria in this water and you’re going to have to throw out all your furniture just because of potential bacterial infection,” said Moulton.
Business owners say during the flooding they noticed feces in the water, leading them to believe the sewage system overflowed. Thursday elected officials said they were going to assess the dams in the area to see what long-term structural changes need to be made.
Depending on the damage, some businesses say they expect to open up within the next few weeks, while others say reopening could take a few months.
