Businesses and residents continued to clean up along the Fox River in Burlington.
Monday was the first day flood damaged debris was picked up by the city. It’s also the first day many business owners could get in and really start assessing the damage.
The owners of Napoli’s Restaurant on North Pine Street has cleared the water from their basement twice already, going for the third on Monday.
Owner Carlo Pedrone said, “The upstairs was great no problem… go downstairs and things are floating in 6 to 8 inches of water probably.”
Downstairs is where they stored all of their inventory. A restoration company came in and dismantled the food cooler, taking it upstairs to be sanitized piece by piece.
The family business has been here since 1989 and will bounce back despite not having flood insurance, Pedrone said. He says there has been so much support from the local community.
“Burlington is awesome, the community here is one big family,” Pedrone said.
Just down the street John Engel of John’s Disposal is one of the contractors hired by the city to remove debris. He said he expects to make several trips to the landfill today to empty his truck. Each stop has been taking 15 to 20 minutes because of the amount of debris.
“I’ve thrown out a whole basement, carpet, mattresses” Engel said.
The city says they will continue to make debris pick ups for the next two weeks, you can find that information here.
