Some Stores in Chelsea Struggle to Reopen After Storm Steve Walker Beads drying outside Erickson Beamon's Chelsea studio. TUESDAY afternoon in the street-level headquarters of Showroom Seven, in the Terminal Warehouse building in the heart of flood-damaged West Chelsea, three dozen employees and volunteers huddled over card tables, sitting in the dark, sorting, cleaning, washing and drying countless piles of crystal beads - each tiny, shiny one by hand. There had to be thousands. Tens of thousands. Probably a million, all damaged when the company's design studio in the basement was flooded with at least five feet of water from the hurricane. Strings of beads were hanging from the pipes and railings to air out like spaghetti. "Are we going to ship one order late?" asked Karen Erickson, who nearly three decades ago started the jewelry line Erickson Beamon, which spawned a large showroom and, in 2007, a store after the family business moved to this building. There was a halfhearted response from the workers. Are we going to get it together? Ms. Erickson asked. "Yes," they answered. And are we happy? "Yes!" they said. While Lower Manhattan was widely impacted by the storm, a handful of stores were so seriously damaged that they are struggling to reopen. On West 22nd Street, the Balenciaga and Comme des Garçons stores, each beautifully designed, were badly flooded. Adrian Joffe, the husband and business partner of Rei Kawakubo, the Comme des Garçons designer, said that more than three feet of water had rushed into the store but that after some repairs, it would reopen on Thursday. Balenciaga, its store now unrecognizable, is looking for a temporary space, at least until its new SoHo store opens in the spring. Showroom Seven has temporarily closed its store, called Beyond 7, to make room for recovery operations, and because power had not been restored. The basement was starting to dry, thanks to the designer Elie Tahari, who donated a pump and a generator. And Ms. Erickson was trying to keep her spirits up, pointing to a beaded vest that Gwen Stefani had just worn in a video, and that had been rescued after the storm. It was now displayed on a mannequin amid the mess. At 4:35 p.m., as it became too dark to see, Ms. Erickson sent everyone home. "We have farming hours now," she said.