Cleanup in Chinatown Area Continues to Affect Businesses

Police say Kneeland Street between Washington and Harrison Street remains closed

The water main break that paralyzed Boston's Chinatown neighborhood may be over, but the repairs and cleanup efforts were still underway Thursday.

Several businesses lost boxes and boxes of food, ruined as the flood waters invaded their store fronts.

After being forced to shut down due to air quality issues, Boston Kitchen Pizza owner Ziad Odeh estimates he lost $3,000-$4,000 of business Wednesday, and he even had to turn away some business Thursday morning.

"We waited for the inspectors to come in," Odeh said. "They came in, they looked at everything, they checked everything out, everything worked out fine. They gave me the OK about 9:30 to open up and we're trying to catch up."

Part of the problem Thursday is the repair work made it very difficult to get to the Chinatown section of the city.

Traffic was clogged as several lanes remained closed during the cleanup. Kneeland Street remained closed between Washington Street and Harrison Street in the morning as Eversource crews worked.

"I got off the expressway and I've been about a half an hour to get here," said Jennifer Rudolph, who was stuck in traffic.

"I'm frustrated, but I'm trying to keep myself nice and calm," added Anthony Garcia, who was also stuck in traffic.

Odeh and other business owners hope once the streets reopen, their customers will return.

"It looks like they all thought maybe we were closed that's why you see the whole place is empty," Odeh said. "Hopefully they'll figure that we're open and everybody will come back."

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