After Irene: Ocean City Businesses Try To Recoup Lost Profits

Life is almost back to normal in Ocean City after Hurricane Irene passed by the resort late Saturday night. The town emerged nearly unscathed, but officials are now worried about getting the tourists to come back.

Irene may not have socked the coast as hard as expected, but business owners in Ocean City say it hit their bottom lines with devastating force.

Greg Shockley, owner of Shenanigan's Irish Pub on the Boardwalk, says traffic in town looks more like late October than late August.

We lost the three days out of it, and we are going to feel the effects of it this week as the town regains momentum and heads toward Labor Day," says Shockley. "But I'm not a Monday morning quarterback and hindsight is 20/20."

After any big storm on the coast, locals tend to share stories and speculate as to where the storm ranks in the region's folklore.

Shockley says Irene wont be remembered as much of a storm, but he says business owners will likely feel her wrath in the winter when they have one less weekend of big summer profits to live off of.