Hurricane Irene blew through town Saturday night, leaving flooding, downed trees and throngs of deserted LGBT tourists in its wake.
While Philadelphia was spared the brunt of the storm, the heavy rains and high winds forced the near shuttering of the Gayborhood and a barrage of LGBT event cancellations.
The rain started coming in earnest Saturday afternoon and by 6 p.m., 12th Street Gym had closed up shop, with Woody’s following at 9, and Tabu closing around 11 p.m. Voyeur didn’t open for the night, while Venture Inn and ICandy remained operating throughout the storm, although the latter cancelled its Sunday brunch.
Stephen Carlino, owner of Tavern on Camac and Uncles, closed his venues between 11 and 11:30 p.m.
Despite the hurricane, both bars were pretty crowded Saturday night, Carlino said, and the closures cut the bars’ typical revenues by about 50 percent.
Before the storm, Carlino was concerned about potential flooding in the restaurant portion of Tavern, but no damage was done.
“We got through it well,” Carlino said. “Luckily, the storm turned out to be not nearly as bad as they predicted. I wish we hadn’t closed now, but at the time it seemed like the prudent thing to do.”
The storm arrived in the midst of two large LGBT tourist events — the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association convention and the world series of the Amateur Sports Alliance of North America.
The NLGJA convention, which ran Thursday-Sunday, brought in 355 participants from throughout the country. Some chose to take flights and trains out early on Saturday, but many elected to weather the storm and extend their stay in Philly.
Some ASANA players and supporters also headed out early, with four teams having to forfeit their games Friday.
Because of the rain Thursday, some games that day were rescheduled for Friday, where play went past 10 p.m.
Most of the championship games got in before the hurricane hit Saturday, but the final one was called in a tie after the rain began.
Saturday afternoon’s Carniball street festival, as well as that night’s championship ceremony, were also cancelled.
The journalists were set to tour the city Saturday afternoon on a Mural Arts tour and a Gay History Walking Tour, both of which had to be cancelled, although an Old City bar crawl and Reading Terminal Market tour went on as scheduled. Three afternoon panels were also cancelled, as many of the speakers were unable to make it to Philadelphia.
An NLGJA awards reception at the Loews Hotel Saturday night continued as planned, but a Sunday morning networking brunch with members of the Independence Business Alliance at Mixto was cancelled.
NLGJA executive director Michael Tune stayed in town until Monday and said he saw a number of convention attendees out and about Sunday afternoon after the weather cleared up.
“People understood that there’s not a lot you can do about a hurricane,” Tune said. “We just made the best of the situation and had a great time in spite of the weather.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].