LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -
Several businesses across from UNLV are still closed, five days after they flooded.
The owners of Whazzup Pizza would like to stay in the location- but aren't sure if they can.
"I take care of UNLV college, they don't have no money, they come here they eat for nothing. I take care of the neighborhood, I take care of everybody. But right now take a look at my store, I'm out of business," said Dominic Venditti, who owns Whazzup Pizza.
Venditti and his wife Cindy Torella, have run Whazzup Pizza for two years, and to the community they're just known as mom and pop.
"This is the kid's home and the neighborhood home you know," Torella told FOX5.
But now their life blood has been completely destroyed.
"This is my pizza oven, they gone, they're history, they can't be repaired no more because the water was up to (my waist)," Venditti told FOX5 during a tour of his restaurant on Saturday.
Up to four feet of water rushed inside the restaurant during a flash flood Tuesday.
At the time Venditti got trapped inside.
"He was getting smashed, with two pizza parlor devices real big," said Jeffery Ford, a barber at Fade 'Em All University next door.
Ford rushed toward the sound of his cries.
"It was kind of rough because of the water… when we seen him in their kind of trapped, and looking kind of scared, he was a part of the team, so we had to pull him out and rescue him," said Ford.
But now Dominic's restaurant needs saving.
"All of this is damaged, I don't have nothing left here no more," said Venditti.
"We want to be here for the neighborhood and for the kids, we love it here," said Torella.
Dominic said with all the damage to the walls, furniture and equipment, he'll need at least 35 thousand dollars to re-open.
"All this is damaged, it can't be plugged in it can't be cleaned anymore," Venditti said.
It's money the couple doesn't have.
"I slept here last night, all night until this morning, crying, I have nothing to do," Venditti said.
So far students from UNLV have started a Facebook page and a donation fund at Wells Fargo to help the restaurant.
To donate, visit any Wells Fargo and give to the Whazzup Pizza Disaster Relief fund.
Copyright 2012 KVVU (KVVU Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.
