Hurricane Café Serves Up a Storm

[southerngale]

I thought this was worth sharing.

Just when you think commerce in Cameron has disappeared in the piles of debris, there`s at least one business that`s booming. It`s the business of burgers.

Hurricane Cafe owner Donald Pugh says, "We stay busy from the time we get here about six in the morning to four or five in the evening."

After losing their home and hardware business in the hurricane, the Pugh family turned to hamburgers and hot dogs to make a living.

Owner Wardella Pugh says, "The hardware store was our living. We also have a shrimp boat, but that time of the year shrimping is almost over with, so this is our living."

They opened the Hurricane Cafe in February when there was no other restaurant in sight.

Daughter Talesha Pugh says, "It was just a relief to us to get back to work after the hurricane and it just makes us feel good that we can actually do something and give something back to the people here that`s helping us get our town back together."

The Hurricane Cafe is still the only place you can get a fresh cooked meal for a 40-mile stretch.

One sightseer says, "We had a hard time finding a place to find anything to eat, and we stopped up here and they said down here a little ways there`s a Hurricane Cafe, okay. We`re ready to eat."

With the number of sightseers and out of town work crews out numbering the people who live here, the appetites are big and so are the profits.

Wardella says, "Its way more profitable-- it is."

Hundreds a day flock the hand built hamburger shack.

Talesha says, "Sometimes we`ll have lines. There`ll be people all over the porch, lines and everybody in the parking lot, and they wait. Sometimes they have to wait 30-45 minutes for a hamburger, but they wait for it."

Rita may have rearranged the Pugh`s lives, but it didn`t rearrange their priorities.

Wardella says, "I have a lot of people say why do you want to go down there. I was born and raised here. Even though there`s nothing here, you`re just home, you know."

After losing both their home and business to Hurricane Rita, the Pugh`s built their new business on wheels. If another hurricane comes, you can bet the Hurricane Cafe will be moving out of the way.

http://www.kbtv4.tv/news/default.asp?mo ... s&id=10976

[Dionne]

Very Cool......I'm impressed. Makes me want to go there just to meet the people and have a burger.

[Javlin]

Thats just what I mean,you can work and out of all this destruction you can find new beginnings if you look.I am now working a second job tring to get the thing off the ground and dump what I have now.