Lincoln restaurant throws out $1,800 of spoiled food after power outage

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A Lincoln restaurant had to throw away $1,800 worth of spoiled food after storms caused a power outage on Wednesday.

Angela Haussler was serving food at her restaurant, Vern and Ellie’s, when her power shut off during the storms.

She also had an outage at her home, along with damage from the wind.

For hours, she waited for the power to turn on, driving between her restaurant and her house.

Around 1:45 a.m., the lights at Vern and Ellie’s came back on. But by then, it was too late.

A majority of Haussler’s refrigerated products were spoiled.

As the only employee at her drive-through restaurant, she had to close for a few days to clean up and take inventory on what was thrown away.

She lost much more than just the food, it was also prep work.

“It was very stressful,” Haussler said. “I’m going to move forward. I’m going to finish cleaning up here, just start over fresh next week.”

She is looking into getting a generator and plans to reopen soon.