Metro

Sandy drowns biz

What should be the busiest season of the year has been nothing but a bust for thousands of small businesses socked hard by the Superstorm Sandy.

Six weeks after the floods receded, a few owners have decided to call it quits. Others are hanging on, determined to wait out the government’s loan process and win back customers.

Elaina Scotto has shuttered the Pearl Street location of her Fresco on the Go eateries. Already, 70 other restaurants have gone out of business and 50 are limping along, the New York State Restaurant Association estimates.

Scotto’s place was still without electricity and phone service when she closed shop on Sunday.

The biggest hit might have been the loss of communication lines, which kept Scotto from taking orders.

“It looks like 9/11 with the dust — a lot of generators and a lot of buildings without power,” she told The Post. “The area is pretty devastated, and without people, we couldn’t survive.”

The phone outage is killing Rockwell’s deli on Broad Street, too.

“We’re losing a quarter of our business because people can’t call, and without a fax number, people can’t order from our Seamless account,” owner Matthew Azimi said, referring to the online food-ordering service. “The lack of that convenience, it hurts business.”

The Capsouto Freres bistro on Washington Street is missing what owner Jacques Capsouto says would usually be its biggest season — Thanksgiving to Christmas. The intimate eatery might not even be open for New Year’s Eve.

“I lost a lot of money — seven weeks of revenue,” he told The Post. “This is the first time we missed Thanksgiving in 32 years.”

Sandy’s rains flooded his bistro’s basement, causing $50,000 in damage. His insurance company, he says, is being slow in paying up.

He wants government aid but with no strings. He already has a low-interest loan from the federal Small Business Administration that he took out after 9/11.

So far, the SBA has received 22,687 applications related to Sandy. As of yesterday, it had awarded 55 loans, totaling $5.13 million.

It’s not just the food industry suffering, either.

Photo shop B2Pro on West Street lost millions of dollars in gear. Owner Brent Langton is trying to run the store out of storage containers in front but battling the city over permits.

Some of his equipment was buried by the excavation dirt washed in from a next-door high-rise.

But he is fighting on.

“My plan is to keep serving my customers as best as I can,” he said.

“I’m running my business out of five containers. I have a duty to my customers and my neighbors.”

And New Jersey’s signature casinos are even feeling the effects of Sandy. Many had to close for days after the storm.

Atlantic City suffered its biggest monthly drop in casino revenue in its 34-year history of legalized gambling — nearly 28 percent from November 2011.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Gould Keil and Amy Stretten