As a widespread power outage continues through its fourth day, thousands in Littlestown Borough have felt the impact of the outages for much of a week.

Sarah Bogus and her husband, Kyle Bogus, were among the more than 4,000 in the area to lose power at their Littlestown-area home on Sunday evening, June 22, and thought, like many others did, that the outage would be short-lived.

On Monday morning, with power still out at their home, the pair was glad to see that their small business, the Firehouse Grill, a small family diner located directly on the center square of the small town, still had power.

While the business is closed for service on Mondays, they received a large delivery of food and began to prepare ingredients for Tuesday. Onions were chopped, ham was sliced, and the ingredients were kept fresh in the commercial refrigerators and freezers of the business.

Then, at 11 a.m., the situation got worse, as the business, too, went dark.

While the business was able to receive generators provided by the community to support some of its refrigerators and freezers, the delivery of food made just prior to the outage is likely to be a loss for the small business.

By Wednesday evening, the restaurant was among several in the town that remained closed, facing uncertainty in when they will be able to reopen.

Just across the street, a local bakery, Something Sweet, owned by Brianna Beverly, shared that they, too, remained shuttered by the outages for yet another day, with uncertainty when they would be able to reopen.

“When the power does come back, I’ll need a little time to move everything back in, restock all my perishable ingredients, and get things rolling again,” Beverly wrote on the business’ page.

Sarah Bogus’ parents, Brad and Vickie Wolf, first purchased the Firehouse Grill in 2008, renaming Boydie’s Restaurant, which opened in the location in 1949, to the Firehouse Grill in tribute of the nearby Alpha Fire Company, located just down the block.

Over those 17 years, the restaurant has weathered hardships, like the 2020 pandemic, but had never lost power longer than six hours, Sarah said.

As the outage drags on through its fourth day, the pair is reminded of their experiences running the business during the 2020 pandemic, of which initial precautions were planned to just last two weeks, but quickly turned to months and years.

“It’s definitely a flashback,” said Sarah, “the pandemic originally was just two weeks and we were like, oh, okay, we’ll get through that, you know?”

The pair expects the restaurant to not be able to reopen until the weekend, or early next week, depending on when power is restored.

With the length of time that the outage has dragged on, the business will have to be thoroughly cleaned, inventory will have to be taken, a new delivery of food will have to be ordered and equipment will need to be inspected, said Kyle.

The uncertainty in timing contributes to any delay in reopening, he noted, as they can’t place the delivery order without knowing if the power will be back on by the time it arrives.

As a result, the small business could likely go a week, if not longer, without being able to serve their customers.

Despite the challenges and uncertainty faced by their small business, the pair emphasized that they have been fortunate through the outage crisis, and recognize that many others in their community are struggling.

“I worry more about the people in our community,” said Sarah. “We are blessed and fortunate that we have these generators.”

Through the outage, the pair has been thankful for the support that has been extended by so many members of that community.

“Even just people reaching out saying we’ll be there to support you when you reopen, or that we’re thinking of you if you need anything, that’s huge for keeping us positive,” said Sarah.

‘”I’ve been born and raised here,” said Sarah. “I love our community.”