VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — For more than 29 years, Big Sam’s Inlet Cafe and Raw Bar says it has been serving the freshest seafood with a waterfront view at Rudee Inlet.
Owner Sam Caldow watched as his waterfront view surrounded his restaurant.
“Whenever we get high tides higher than normal, this storm drain is the lowest point on the property,” Caldow said, pointing to the spot in his parking lot. “So the water will start coming up through there first, and then it will go south. And then, as the water comes over the bulkheads of the Marina, they’ll meet in the middle. And then it just starts rising.”
It was just after 1 p.m. at high tide Sunday when the waters started to rise. The National Weather Service reported a water level rise of as much as 7.3 feet at the inlet.
“During the peak, the currents were pretty strong through here,” Caldow said. “We had little breaking waves, and we just lift everything up, both businesses, and let it come in, let it go back out.”
The water surged in between the buildings and over the bulkheads, flooding the parking lot all the way to the street, as well as the businesses next to his.
“We actually had a pretty strong current of water coming through here,” Caldow said. “That was probably, somewhere in the neighborhood, this high, maybe a little higher.”
As the water levels continued to rise, Caldow’s business never shut down, though the lunch rush was a bit slow. However, the inlet’s water never reached inside.
“It’s probably the worst in at least 10 years that I can remember,” Caldow said. “We’ve had some nor’easters in the past for similar, but the biggest one was Isabel, which was coming in the front door when I left. We gave up on that one.”
And Big Sam’s is a destination that made its name because of tropical storms that have blown through.
“We were full and we didn’t realize the storm was coming,” Caldow said. “It switched directions and somehow, we got a reputation for the party headquarters for bad weather. So if it’s flooding, storming or a blizzard, people are in here.”
Restaurant workers spent the morning cleaning up the debris outside in the parking lot where the flooding was. Inside the restaurant, there is no damage.
