Businesses in and around Dayton are still dealing with a lack of electricity and water, after Monday night's tornadoes. Rahn's Artisan Breads stopped operations Monday night when the lights went out. Owner Rahn Keucher says his ovens run on electricity, and he hasn't been able to find a generator powerful enough to run his freezers and ovens.
"When the power comes back I will let the freezers run for about three or four hours and then the first thing we'll do is throw everything away," he says. "Why we let it refreeze is because it's dough, and now they're a sticky mess."
Keucher says if the power comes back on Wednesday, he won't be able to start baking again until Thursday night. Even then, he says he's lost some cultures and won't be able to bake certain varieties for a while.
Platinum Express in Old North Dayton had a portable generator outside of its Stanley Avenue office. Operations Manager Jerry Hunter says his workplace got lucky. The neighborhood was hit hard by Monday night's tornado, but the only damage to his building was a lost sign and a flagpole bent at ground level.
"We kind of just suffered through it yesterday," he says. The generator was powering the lights and the air conditioning, but not the computers. "We've got people moved off-site doing a lot of the stuff that we would generally do here."
Hunter says he doesn't know when the electricity will come back on. He's seen Dayton Power and Light crews working in the area but didn't want to pester them.
The owner of George's in Northridge says Tuesday morning he decided to feed the neighborhood even though his business didn't have electricity. Dino Dimitrouleas pulled out grills and started cooking up his food supply before it went bad.
"We had a pretty big line. Northridge Schools came over and said, 'We've got a bunch of food that we're going to have to throw it away, too; can we bring it over here and have you guys cook it up?' And we said 'Bring it over! Sure! That's fantastic!' "
Dimitrouleas says they ended up feeding about 1,500 people. He says the power is back on at his restaurant, and he got restocked Wednesday morning.
"At this point, we are open to open for tomorrow (Thursday). We do have food again; we got trucks in. So we are ready to go with a full menu, if they lift the water advisory," he says.
Dimitrouleas says there are protocols for staying open during a boil advisory, but says they're more easily said than done.
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