Two weeks after flooding ruined businesses at Georgetown’s Washington Harbour, restaurants continue to clean-up and recover from the massive damage.

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“It is disheartening,” said Tom Prescott, a minority owner of Farmers & Fishers restaurant. “Almost like I lost a child actually, being that I helped build that place from scratch."

He estimates that the renovations will cost $1.5 million.

Some businesses predicted that they'd be closed until past Mother's Day.

Hundreds of people were evacuated April 18 after the Washington Harbour Shopping Plaza on the Georgetown waterfront flooded. The flooding submerged chairs and tables at restaurants and poured into an underground parking garage. Major property damage is expected but immediate estimates were not available.

The water, which was waist deep inside some restaurants, poured in after the flood walls weren’t put in place, residents said.

A $5 million class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for D.C. last week on behalf of persons and entities “who have lost or will lose income as a result of the flooding.

The complaint, filed by Mason LLP, alleges that there was enough time to raise flood walls after a flood warning was issued. MRP Realty, the owner and manager of the Washington Harbour complex, did not do so, it alleges.

According to the law firm, “the lawsuit seeks recovery of lost income and lost profit for businesses and their employees caused by the negligent failure of MRP Realty to raise the flood walls.”

The lawsuit was initiated by a bartender at Farmers and Fishers. A number of individuals were interested in filing, according to the law firm, but no restaurants or businesses as a whole are involved.