Denham Springs businesses are slowly coming back to life after the great flood in August, but for Big Mike’s Sports Bar and Grill business is thriving.
Owner Mike O’Neil’s restaurant took on 64 inches of water during the flood, and he also lost his house.
O’Neil battled the odds and reopened his business in mid-October.
“we feel very blessed, as tragic as it was, to come out the way we did,” O’Neil said. “it’s not the way you go about things it’s not the way you dream about things but we were very lucky to be open as fast as we were.”
However, not all local businesses were so lucky.
Denham Springs Councilman Jeff Wesley said he fears that some local shop owners may not be coming back.
“They were faced with trying to repair everything and in some cases they had flood insurance and in some cases they didn’t,” Wesley said. “So it was a really big hit to them.”
He said he estimates it will take two years for the city to be back in full force, but he is optimistic that Denham Springs will be even better than it was before.