Studio City Boutiques Reopen Months After Being Flooded Out
The Studio City Canyon Beachwear reopened in March after being destroyed by a flood in September.
A bad economy and even floods could not keep these retailers down.
After closing their doors more than seven months ago to repair flood damage, almost all of the 11 restaurants and boutiques in the 13000 block of Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles’ Studio City neighborhood are back in business after a 2009 flood destroyed their stores.
Their troubles started when a water main close to their stores exploded in the early morning hours of Sept. 5, in the middle of the crucial 2009 Labor Day Weekend. Mud and water shot up 10 feet in the air, according to a Los Angeles Times article. The flood turned Ventura Boulevard into a river, and store security cameras captured video of inky water seeping into the stores and quickly rising to more than 2 feet high in some boutiques.
A night’s flooding destroyed years of work building boutiques, said Carolyn Silva, general manager of the Canyon Beachwear boutique at 13035 Ventura Blvd. “It wiped out our store, the merchandise, the counter, everything,” she said.
However, Silva’s Ventura store, one of eight locations in the Canyon Beachwear chain, reopened in March, and Studio City shoppers are returning to buy swimwear, she said.
On April 10, luxury lingerie store Faire Frou Frou reopened its 900-square-foot space at 13017 Ventura Blvd. Co-owner Alison Rubke estimated her financial losses from the flood and the missed business cost her $500,000. Her e-commerce business kept her afloat in the months between the flood and her reopening. She said rebuilding the business for her physical store will take time. “There are a lot of people in Australia who know we’ve reopened,” Rubke said of her international e-commerce business. “But a lot of people in Studio City may not know we’re open.”
In February, Rubke and most of her neighbors submitted a claim to the Los Angeles Department of Water Power for redress for damage and lost business. No date has been scheduled for an official response from the DWP.
Faire Frou Frou's Alison Rubke
