Beach Blvd. Open Again in Buena Park : Floods: Section damaged in storm is restored, to relief of street’s suffering merchants.

No one was happier to see Thursday’s reopening of storm-battered Beach Boulevard than Evelyn Castro, 31, who works in the Buena Animal Clinic.

The clinic almost folded when part of the road was closed to traffic for more than a month after the torrential rains in January, Castro said.

“We have been, you might say, out of business for the past four or five weeks now,” Castro said. “We’ve been hurting something really bad.”

Similar sentiments were expressed Thursday by other business owners along the boulevard, which was shut down Jan. 4 when rainfall washed away about 30 feet of the road where it crosses Fullerton Creek.

Water also damaged much of the creek’s north lining wall, stretching from just east of Beach to about 300 feet west of Western Avenue, forcing crews to remove it, said Don Jensen, city director of public works. The storm knocked out a five-foot section of Western, where it crosses the creek.

Jensen said repair work on Western will begin next week and be completed in two to three weeks, while crews will be working well into March to finish replacing the creek’s wall.

Crews have finished the major work on Beach, and will complete the median, sidewalks and other minor repairs over the next week, he said.

The extra work “is nothing that’s going to require closing down the road,” Jensen said.

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Crews have been working since Jan. 14, at times around the clock, to repair the road, Jensen said. He added that the reconstruction took about 10 working days total.

The repairs cost about $1.5 million, most of which was provided by the federal government, said City Manager Kevin O’Rourke. He said federal aid and local grant money is still available for the estimated 120 Buena Park businesses and homes affected by the flooding.

The city also plans further repairs on the walls in the creek, which will total $1.2 million, O’Rourke said.

City employees spent Thursday distributing flyers to about 100 homes advertising a meeting for those seeking information about state and federal assistance. The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday at the Buena Park Recreation Center, 8150 Knott Ave.

“The opening (of Beach Boulevard) is going to be important because businesses along here have just been suffering terribly,” O’Rourke said. “This couldn’t have opened soon enough for them.”

Steve Collins, manager of an Arby’s restaurant on Beach, said he lost more than 50% of his business because the road was damaged.

“I expect as of today we’ll be doing much better,” Collins said. “I’ve even staffed up so we’ll be ready for them.”

While most businesses in the area welcomed Beach’s opening, Fred Meyers, manager of the Albertson’s grocery store at Orangethorpe Avenue and Western, said the attention that has gone into repairing Beach has come at the expense of Western.

The hole in Western’s bridge over Fullerton Creek does not even allow foot traffic because of the piles of wood and chain-link fencing surrounding the five-foot gap.

The damage “took a one-block walk and turned it into a three-mile trek,” Meyers said.

Meyers said he was not allowed to say exactly how much the damage to Western has hurt the store, but said “it’s affected business adversely.” The store has begun a shuttle service to pick up area customers who normally walk to the store.

Meyers said that city officials told him in mid-January that Western would be repaired shortly, but that “they haven’t put any effort into Western.”

“I wish they’d had it back together in the 10 days they originally told us they’d have it back together,” Meyers said. “It’s been three weeks now.”

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But Buena Park Mayor Don R. Griffin said Beach Boulevard handles about 55,000 cars per day, and it was essential to rebuild the street as soon as possible.

“I think today is a major step toward restoring order in our community,” Griffin said. “This is good news for Buena Park.”

Beach’s reconstruction was a joint effort among the county, Caltrans and the Army Corps of Engineers, Jensen said. He said the Corps of Engineers came in to manage the project about a week after work began on Jan. 14.