SARASOTA, Fla. (SNN) – The Venice area was hit hard by Hurricane Idalia.
A local music shop and venue that was damaged by the storm lost thousands of dollars in musical equipment.
Phyllis Elser, who lives in the Venice Isles mobile home park, says the storm wasn’t nearly as bad as Ian.
“I stayed. Cause, I thought, it’s not going to hit again. It can’t. Everybody would tell me, we’re not going to get hit for another hundred years,” Elser said.
Even though most say the storm was less damaging than Ian, Billy Day, the owner of Troll Music, said his business experienced significant damage and loss of inventory.
He says he lost about $10,000 in music inventory.
“We were hoping for a glancing blow from the hurricane. But obviously, we weren’t so lucky. We’re kinda feeling like a hurricane magnet at this point. Cause last year was bad for us as well. We had to get the front part of the roof done. Now, this year, we lost the back part of our roof,” said Day.
On top of losing inventory and the roof, they also are without power.
Day says, if the power gets restored, they may host the John Salaway show this weekend. Day is making decisions on whether or not the upcoming shows should be canceled.
“I don’t have anything canceled at the moment. But we’re going to be talking to the performers, and kinda getting a game plan. There is a possibility for postponement, maybe in the month of September, which fortunately, we did not have a lot booked,” said Day.
To keep up to date with the live performances, and to donate, you can find Troll Music on Facebook.