Valley Road was eerily silent yesterday as Charles Borg waited for clients to turn up at his petrol station.
In one week we lost 80 per cent of our turnover as a result of the road closure
It had only just reopened for traffic. The main artery between Birkirkara centre and Msida was closed last week after flood waters damaged the top part of the road next to the VAT Department.
Emergency repair works were finished yesterday minus the top surface of tarmac that sent clouds of dust flying into the air as the first cars started driving past.
Mr Borg’s petrol station at the Msida end was hard hit by the road closure that came on the back of storm damage.
“It kept clients away for a whole week.”
His sentiment was echoed by veterinarian Lino Vella, who owns the Blue Cross Veterinary Clinic a couple of doors up.
The clinic, like other shops in the area, experienced flooding but with the equipment raised from floor level the damage was minimal.
The bigger problems came when Valley Road was closed.
“In one week we lost 80 per cent of our turnover as a result of the road closure and nobody is going to pay for this, apart from the risk of losing clients forever,” Dr Vella said.
On the Birkirkara end of the road, William Rizzo, owner of Rizzo Service Station, also waited for clients to turn up.
The storm waters had ripped up the road, metres away from his petrol station.
But as shops and showrooms lining the road tried to present a sense of normality, Godwin Savona, the owner of a spare parts shop at the Msida end, was less lucky.
His store was badly battered by the floods and, while the road closure did not affect him, Mr Savona had to contend with a different problem: he did not have insurance cover. “In 2003 when similar floods happened I was insured and the company honoured part of my claim.
“But after that incident I was refused insurance,” he said, adding he gave up insuring his store after two years of battling in vain.
Mr Savona said insurance companies considered the location of his shop too risky to cover flood damage and he now had to shoulder the cost.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com