Cathy Salustri
What you see on Facebook isn’t always true, and that’s the case with posts about O’Maddy’s re-opening in Gulfport this morning. Yes, the restaurant re-opened briefly, but when the Gulfport Police Department learned the Zone A restaurant had opened, they made them close.
Zone A evacuations remain in place.
“As soon as we found out, we told them they had to close,” Gulfport Police Chief Rob Vincent told The Gabber Newspaper.
To reach O’Maddy’s, patrons currently have to make their way through floodwaters, which contain multiple — and sometimes deadly — hazards.
“Unfortunately, the word got out and loads of people are trying to come [to Gulfport] and go there,” Vincent said. “It’s unfortunate that our police resources are being spent keeping people from driving through floodwaters rather than patrolling the City.”
Drive in Floodwaters, Get Points on Your License
Initially, GPD set out cones and barricades, the chief said, “hoping that people would do the right thing” and not move them or drive around them to drive over submerged land.
That didn’t work out as GPD hoped, so the City issued a directive late this morning that makes driving around a cone, past a police car blocking a flooded street, or driving through the water and creating a wake a moving violation. That violation comes with points on the driver’s license.
The Chief said one of his main concerns was that people driving through storm surge would create a wake that could push water into people’s homes.
O’Maddy’s in Gulfport Remains Closed
O’Maddy’s, known for its cowboy-like tenacity in the face of approaching tropical storms and hurricanes, is often the last place in downtown Gulfport to close and first to reopen. Its brief re-opening included not only eager patrons, but also some social media hate. One person posted that owner Joe Guenther threatened to fire people if they didn’t come in to work.
Again, not everything you read on Facebook is real
“Absolutely not even the closest thing to being true,” Guenther told The Gabber Newspaper. Some staff came to O’Maddy’s of their own volition. “People want to work. I feel bad that they’re not working. People rely on O’Maddy’s for their paycheck. I have probably eight people here volunteering to clean up.”
Guenther said the inside of the Gulfport bar and grill had ankle deep water at 4 a.m.
“It wasn’t bad at all,” he said.
Once O’Maddy’s gets the all-clear to re-open, it will.
After all, Gulfport needs its RBK (Beef on Weck).
Read all The Gabber Newspaper’s Idalia updates.
Both Pinellas County and The Gabber Newspaper encourage residents and visitors to get their forecast updates at the National Hurricane Center. The NHC releases updated forecasts and advisories at 2 a.m., 5 a.m., 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m., and 11 p.m. We strongly discourage readers from taking weather advice from any other models.
Timely Holiday
Florida’s annual “Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday” will run through Friday, Sept. 8. That means Floridians can buy things such as generators, dish soap, and batteries without paying the state sales tax. Here’s the list of items included in the Disastar Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday.
