Dumbo was badly hit by Storm Sandy. Two of our favorite shops were flooded by the storm surge and suffered major damage. They are now cleaning up and trying to clean up, dry off and move forward.

One Girl Cookies, located on Main Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn, was badly hit by Superstorm Sandy. After the storm, there was four feet of water on their Dumbo block. The bakery filled with water and they are now without power and the shop itself is a disaster area.

One Girl also has a shop in Cobble Hill that was, thankfully, untouched by the storm. The business employs about 36 people and at the moment many of them are helping clean up the Dumbo cafe.  I found this message on their website:

We just want to send boundless gratitude to everyone who has emailed, messaged, tweeted, phoned and stopped by with well wishes and offers of help. As some of you may already know, our lovely DUMBO store is not so lovely right now. Unfortunately, we were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy and suffered some damage due to flooding. (Our block was under 4′ of water and power has not yet been restored.)

PowerHouse Arena, a bookstore, event and exhibition space (and site of the 2009 Brooklyn Blogfest) was also a victim of the storm. The bookstore is truly an essential site on the map of Brooklyn’s literary scene as it is the site of many book launch parties. Here’s the email they sent out:

“The POWERHOUSE Arena sits just blocks from the beautiful Brooklyn waterfront, and while we moved merchandise in preparation for the hurricane’s 3′-11′ surges predicted by the expert meteorologists, we were not prepared for a 14′ rise in water level, which resulted in an inundation of 28″ throughout our 5000 sf main floor. Tubs of kids books, event copies, stationery and totes were lifted off the Arena steps and sunk; cabinets bobbed in the rushing onslaught; within 20 minutes the Arena was flooded and then emptied, breaking out the front door glass window and taking more than a few items along the way. Many of our neighbors–Almondine Bakery, One Girl Cookie, Governor, Aegir Surfboards–were equally devastated, in some cases more so. We’ve not fully tallied our losses, but they’re in the several tens of thousands of dollars.