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Tavern Survived Sandy, But Struggles In Its Wake

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

We now turn to John Exadaktilos who is the owner of the Ducktown Tavern in Atlantic City. We spoke with him shortly after Hurricane Sandy touched down.

JOHN EXADAKTILOS: I've got a warehouse that got flooded with 30 inches of water. I've got an apartment building on the boardwalk that got about three feet. My house, destroyed. You see a 15-inch water line around the perimeter of the house.

SIMON: Even so, the Ducktown Tavern stayed open throughout the storm. But a year later, Mr. Exadaktilos is still struggling to keep his head above water. He says that's partly because business in Atlantic City just hasn't recovered from this storm.

EXADAKTILOS: Tours and - no one knows to come in here. No one really knows that AC's open.

SIMON: The city is ready for tourists, and much of the main attractions in surrounding areas are back pretty much as they once were, but...

EXADAKTILOS: The marketing of us to the rest of the country, you know, or even the surrounding communities was not done correctly or not done at all, and that's what we need here, is just tourism. We have great restaurants in town; we have the best, concentrated restaurants to anybody - Vegas or New York or Miami. We're here, we're open, and so we just need to get that word out.

SIMON: And when that happens, John Exadaktilos hopes that Atlantic City will be all the way back. Why don't we go to sports?

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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