There are now 11 confirmed tornadoes that have hit New York state this year, majorly impacting residences and communities.

The city of Rome knows the price of cleanup well, with homeowners and businesses still recovering from the EF-2 that hit two years ago.

“The issues that we had with our historic building were pretty minimal. The glass in our offices was blown out. There were some issues with our roofs that had to be fixed, and some electrical work that needed to be done with the marquee, which is actually still in progress,” said Julie Pierce, executive assistant for the Capitol Arts Complex.

From having to close their bookstore, to their theater program where they taught classes and losing their independent cinema, it’s been a financial strain.  

“Construction work is ongoing, and we’re hoping to reopen our independent cinema this fall,” said Pierce. 

“Businesses got a lot of assistance from the chamber, the county and the city,” said Bruce Hairston, executive director for the Rome Area Chamber of Commerce.

He says many businesses have bounced back from the damage only to take another blow.

“It’s tough to be a small business operator in this climate. Price of fuel, as we all know. You have the price of beef, so if you own a restaurant and then, of course, you know, people don’t realize that small business owners get hit with the minimum wage increases,” said Hairston.  

Pierce says they were able to get some financial aid from the chamber, but no other financial support. 

“That’s why it was really important for us to get an insurance settlement that actually made it so we could rebuild the buildings. That’s part of why it’s taken so long to get things up and running again,” said Pierce. 

Pierce says the tornado has changed the entire vibe of the city, but she’s hopeful they can build back better.

“We opened cinema because we really believe that in order to revitalize downtown, something had to be going on every day. And it succeeded in downtown, was really coming together as an arts district and our goal is to make that happen again,” she said.