Restaurants and business owners from West Lebanon to White River Junction, Vt., continue to reconstruct their storefronts and their livelihoods following damage caused by Hurricane Irene, which hit the New England region as a tropical storm in late August, according to community members interviewed by The Dartmouth.
Tastes of Africa, a catering and food preparation company, was on the cusp of completing a major business expansion project in White River Junction when Hurricane Irene decimated its facilities and forced owners Melvin Hall '91 and Damaris Hall to reconsider the business' future.
"Essentially we had shut down in terms of operations as we finished expanding our finished kitchen facility and we were working on expanding," Melvin Hall said. "The storm hit just as we were about to re-open on [Aug. 29]."
Tastes of Africa's original renovation was intended to support a major new contract with a food distributor. Tastes of Africa currently ships food to Dartmouth Dining Services and several local co-ops, according to Melvin Hall.
Reaching a peak level of six feet, floodwaters from the hurricane destroyed all of the new kitchen equipment and renovation work at Tastes of Africa's original location, Melvin Hall said. The price of the lost renovation was "in the high tens of thousands," he added.
Thanks to the efforts of over 30 community volunteers, Tastes of Africa's new White River Junction location was completed within only four weeks of Irene, according to Melvin Hall.
"We are humbled and extremely grateful to see the level of response, the smart thinking of the state, and the compassion and generosity of our friends and volunteers," Melvin Hall said.
Melvin Hall said he was also enthusiastic about governmental efforts to provide support to small business owners impacted by the flood.
"The state turned around and got funding assistance out," he said. "All of the agencies involved with all of the processes of establishing a new business essentially streamlined every application, bent over backwards. It was a collaborative effort at every stage at the local level, state level, even federal level in terms of inspectors so that we can get open again."
Thanks to the rapid relocation, Melvin Hall said Tastes of Africa will likely open by December and can hopefully regain the level of business it had been preparing for in August.
Tastes of Africa was not the only local business to feel Irene's wrath, as many stores in the Upper Valley sustained considerable damage in the hurricane aftermath. The damage in White River Junction was mainly isolated to two buildings on Bridge Street, a small section of the downtown area that crosses the Connecticut River, according to Lori Hershfield, planning and development director for the town of Hartford, Vt. Businesses in the buildings that were impacted by the storm include Home Comfort Warehouse, Morse Brothers Mountain Bikes and the Main Street Museum, in addition to Tastes of Africa, Hershfield said.
The town has encouraged business owners to seek loans for reconstruction from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Vermont Economic Development Authority and the Hartford Business Revolving Loan Fund, according to Hershfield.
"We've been on the ground working 10, 12-hour days every day since the storm, and many other departments have been doing the same thing," she said.
Hurricane Irene had a greater impact on other areas within the town of Hartford, including infrastructure damage to bridges, roads and a wastewater pump station. A total of 140 commercial and residential properties were affected by the flood, Hershfield said.
"We've gone through floods before," Hershfield said. "It's a good 18 to 24 months for businesses to recover and a total of four years before the community fully recovers."
In West Lebanon, three shopping centers on South Main Street sustained extensive flood damage, Leann Cushman, administrator of the Codes Department for the city of Lebanon, said.
Municipal structures in West Lebanon sustained mostly "washout damage" from the flood, according to West Lebanon Fire Chief and Emergency Management Director Chris Christopoulous. The town also employed an architect who ensured that there was no foundational damage to any of the plazas, according to Cushman.
A total of 14 commercial businesses remain closed in the area, including iParty, K-Mart, Supercuts, GameStop, Maurice's, Olympia Sports, The Paper Store, Famous Footwear, Rent-A-Center, Mouse Menagerie, Newberry Comics, Payless Shoes, Pro Optical and Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts, according to Cushman.
"There's a lot of smaller businesses in the area that are experiencing a decrease of sales, so that's certainly an impact," Christopoulos said. "The businesses are feeling it."
CEO of iParty Sal Perisano described a five-foot surge of water that led to the closing of the company's West Lebanon location.
"The entire store was damaged," he said. "We had to write off most of the inventory and the lease improvements in the store, send the fixtures out to be cleaned, and we lost half of them."
The store needs electrical work, carpeting, drywall and paint in order to meet the company's goal of reopening in late January, Perisano said. In the meantime, the company is losing business, he said.
"It's material to customers, and it's material to employees," Perisano said.
In order for West Lebanon businesses to begin renovations that affect the general public's safety, they must first obtain a permit from the city's Codes Department, Cushman said. The final deadline to begin renovation is Nov. 25, she added.
"Usually it takes two to three weeks to get a permit, and we have been turning it around within a week," Cushman said.
Businesses then turn to private contractors, who have been making flood-related projects a priority, she said.
Information about the impact of Hurricane Irene on employment in the "sub-state region" will not be available for several months, according to Anita Josten, a research analyst for the New Hampshire Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau.
"You can't stop Mother Nature and you're not going to stop the water," Christopoulos said about the flood.
