Florida restaurateur on Helene: ‘It’s an absolute gut punch’ [Video]

Café L’Europe, one of the oldest buildings in St. Armands Circle, in Sarasota, Florida, has been flooded four times in the past 18 months.

“That last one from Helene completely wiped out the restaurant. Every piece of equipment is ruined… It was gut-wrenching,” John Horne, CEO of Oysters Rock Hospitality, which owns and operates the restaurant along with six other spots along Florida’s West Coast, told FOX Business. 

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Horne said the building, which was formerly home to John Ringling’s sales office, took on 4 feet of water and that no one in St. Armands Circle was spared. 

“[I’ve’] never seen anything like it. Every business in the circle is affected” by Helene, Horne said. Helene made landfall last month as a Category 4 storm and brought with it winds with speeds of up to 140 mph and a record storm surge of 15 feet. 

Moody’s RMS Event Response estimated that private market insured losses for Helene’s wind and …