Palm Beach Small Businesses Brave Back-to-Back Hurricanes, Keep Doors Open for Community

In what might seem like a foolhardy move, some small businesses in Palm Beach decided to keep their doors open during both of the back-to-back powerful hurricanes that struck Florida in October.

Foolhardy it may be a word to use, but those open say they enjoyed themselves and that  they served the public as normally as possible during a time of stress.

These, it must be said, were the ultra-brave ones.

In much of the state, hurricanes Helene and Milton were killer storms that flooded streets, took down power lines and caused perhaps several hundreds of billions of dollars in property damage.

“We were open during both storms,” said Rick Wentley, owner of P.B. Boys Club Surf Shop in Palm Beach. Wentley moved to Palm Beach in 1985, from Pittsburgh, and opened the eclectic shop that sells men’s clothes, surf boards, umbrellas and wet suits, in 1993. He has seen a few storms in his time in Palm Beach.

Wentley, who calls himself “an amateur weatherman,” took the two storms so casually that, the night before Helene, when many other businesses were boarding up, he served marguerites to customers.

“My wife said to me, ‘We got to buy this. We got to buy that.’ I said, We’re not buying anything until we see where these storm area headed,” Wentley said.

He figured after a few hours of viewing weather reports and trusting his own judgement, that Helene and Milton would not be as horrendous as predicted.

“We made them for everybody who came in,” said Wentley. “We had a lot of visitors.”

“I had to do something” for those who came in despite severe storm warnings posted throughout the state. For most of Southern Florida, there was an evacuation order.
But by now, Wentley, 67, is a storm veteran. He recalls making it through other hurricanes that left him without power for two weeks.

Helene and Milton, coming within two weeks of one another, did more damage to the western parts of the state, including Tampa and Sarasota. While it was often wet and wild in Palm Beach, damage was slight.

Why does Wentley remain in Florida, despite warnings of future storms that may be even worse, “I love the state,” he told the Press. “I love my community. Palm Beach was the most beautiful place I ever saw,” he said, recalling when he first visited the place decades ago.

In the years since, Wentley said, he has become a surfer.

“I’ve ridden some pretty big waves,” he said.

Nandine Jayaprasad, owner of Chik Monk Coffee in West Palm Beach, also kept the doors open during Helene and Milton.

She and her family have been in the coffee business for four generations, beginning in India. Threats of bad weather, she said, do not frighten her.

She opened in West Palm three years ago, finding that she liked the climate and the people she met.

Reports of climate change and possible worse weather ahead, he said, do not trouble her.

“There are snow storms and bad weather everywhere.”

Green’s Pharmacy and Luncheonette, a staple in Palm Beach, stayed open during most of the two storms, said owner Allen Rutman, a pharmacist. The store has been in business 80 years, and retains the old-time atmosphere – with a soda fountain and stools. Rutman has been the owner since 1980.

“It was a category five before it hit landfall,” Rutman said of Helene. “The closer it got, it lost power.

“I stayed open because we’re in a service industry,” he said. “The only way I would close is if the police came and said, You got to go.”