Power outages, storms affect Squirrel Hill businesses

Wednesday evening’s regional storms wreaked havoc on several Squirrel Hill businesses. At Murray Avenue Kosher, the grocery and deli retained lighting but lost its “220 power,” leaving it unable to run its large appliances, said Beth Markovic, owner of the local store.

“All of our refrigerator cases did not have any power and were not being kept cold,” she said.

Items ruined at Murray Avenue Kosher included meat, ice cream and dairy products. As of Thursday morning, an exact value as to the damage was still being determined.

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Across the street at Giant Eagle, staff had similar concerns.

“Overnight we lost a lot of stuff, a lot of dairy items, milk, cheese, yogurt — almost all of our dairy items had to be tossed,” said Marcus Carneiro, a customer service clerk. “We got our power back by about 5 to 6 a.m., but by then most of the damage had been done.”

Carneiro was not certain as to how much money was lost because of the outage, but said, “I can only guess, but I would say tens of thousands of dollars, and not to mention the money that would be lost because we are closed during this time.”

Like Murray Avenue Kosher, Giant Eagle hoped to reopen later in the day.

“We’re working on resupplying and getting new product in as quickly as possible,” said Markovic.

Power outages also affected the Jewish Association on Aging, Tinsy Labrie said in an email.

“We can confirm that power did go out at Weinberg Terrace last evening. Our residents were being monitored by staff throughout the night,” said Labrie, the agency’s director of marketing. “We were in the midst of preparing evacuation plans for residents needing extra care when power was restored earlier this morning.”

At the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh, power outages slightly altered activities.

“There were no cancellations of any programs. The only thing that didn’t happen was early spin classes because of the power,” said Cathy Samuels, the center’s senior director of development and communications.

Regarding food, Samuels said that “the only food loss was 150 cartons of 1-percent milk.”

Brian Schreiber, the JCC’s president and CEO, added in an email Thursday afternoon, “We’re up and running. Back to full schedule. Early childhood operated as usual, informing parents of situation.” PJC

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.