Businesses impacted by Big Sur rock slide that will open in days to come

BIG SUR, CALIF. (KION-TV)- “It comes with the territory down here. Big Sur is just not an easy place to run a business.”

Tyler Rue is the general manager of Coast Cafe and Boutique. His business is one of several that deal with natural disasters. 

“Between COVID, between fires, between floods and rock slides, it kind of hardens you and gets you ready for just about anything that can come your way,” Rue said.

Road closures can cause businesses like Coast Cafe to see slow days when tourists can’t visit. How important are tourists exactly?

“Huge,” Rue said. “Obviously it makes up 90% plus of our business. We do pull a good number of people from here in the Big Sur Community and from the Monterey Peninsula, but the vast majority of the business here in Big Sur is tourism based.”

 Rue explains how a business like his stays prepared for disasters of all kinds.

“So we actually have a construction crew that works for Coast that will secure the exterior,” Rue said. “We’re on generator power when the power does go out inevitably. We have water systems that we use locally that all depend and can be heavily impacted by the rains and by storms.”

According to Caltrans, the road closure will be fully reopened by Thursday, December 8th.

The closure at this point is a two-mile gap between Big Creek Vista Point and Dolan Point.