ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Pour Taproom in St. Petersburg is having a problem staying dry.
It’s not the beer they’re serving that’s the problem, however -- it’s the water that floods the business during heavy rains.
- Bar forced to close on May 20 due to flooding
- More than 3 inches of water covered location's floor
- Water and Sewer officials investigating issue
“Once it got really, really heavy, the water was going through roof drains, going out to the city and then backing back up, and literally all our floor started getting covered with rain water,” said Pour co-owner Tanner Moody.
On Sunday, May 20, Moody said they had more than three inches in the taproom and he was forced to close.
“We've lost out on thousands of dollars in sales,” Moody said. “It's really unfortunate."
"Sundays are one of our best days of the week," he continued. "We lost out on that. Luckily, Mondays and Tuesdays, obviously not huge drinking days for the community, but you know, still definitely a loss in sales.”
We reached out to city water and sewer officials Wednesday, and they immediately showed up to investigate the problem. They said several things could be causing the backup.
“I want to investigate to see if it was actually a waste water issue or if it was a storm water related issue,” said St. Petersburg Waste Water Coordinator John Stanton. “Could be as simple as a bottle come [sic] through the roof drain, a trash bag or something got washed up into the system where's it's not draining properly in a heavy rain.”
In the meantime, Moody has put in a temporary pump to keep the water out of his business tonight as he prepares for a large crowd to watch the Tampa Bay Lightning play in the winner-take-all Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
“Luckily, today's forecast is dry,” Moody said, “which means, beer's gonna be flowing tonight.”