GIG HARBOR, Wash. — Netshed No. 9 has been a Gig Harbor staple for nearly 10 years, and one of its owners, Thad Lyman, is proud to be here.
“We love the location, we’re not going anywhere,” he said.
Lyman said he was out of town during the floods caused by heavy rain and king tides earlier this week, and heard about the damage to his restaurant and the city through social media posts. He tried to direct the cleanup remotely when he heard how high the water was.
But as stressful as that was, Lyman considers himself lucky.
“There are a lot of houses around here that got hit harder than us,” Lyman said. “We have a great crew doing their job, but some of these people may not have these resources.”
Now, Lyman said the goal is getting is restaurant up and running as soon as possible, but that won’t be easy.
Lyman said the next few days will be a lot of sweeping, scrubbing, drying, all in the hopes of getting the restaurant ready for New Year's.
“It’s not glamourous, it’s hands and knees and scrubbing and ... all that kind of stuff,” he said.
Lyman said his crew began moving food to higher ground as soon as possible, but some equipment will have to be replaced.
But Lyman said at the end of the day, dealing with flooding comes with the territory of having a restaurant on the water, and there’s only so much you can do to prepare.
“That wind caught us by surprise, but even if we knew what was coming, you can’t sandbag the ocean,” he said. “At best, we would’ve gotten equipment on things like dollies or up in the air, but this happens every year. Whether it happens to this extent or only a couple of inches, it’s pretty common, so we just have to work through it, it’s part of the job.”
Pierce County’s Department of Emergency Management has set up a reporting system to gather information on homes or commercial properties that were damaged by the floods, and owners could potentially be reimbursed.