NORTH ANDOVER — A year after two extreme rainstorms hit the Merrimack Valley, local businesses persevered through a trying year to rebuild themselves — and one, owned by a Gloucester man, continues to do so.
Aug. 8 marked the one-year anniversary of a storm that engulfed local businesses and homes with flash flooding. A total of 6 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours that day in the Merrimack Valley. Ten days later, two more inches fell on the region after another intense rainstorm caused additional flooding.
Town Manager Melissa Murphy-Rodrigues estimated North Andover sustained $20 million in damages from the two storms.
Last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency turned down an assistance package. Instead, the town used gas disaster settlement funds to help some residents.
The state provided North Andover with $725,000 in flood relief funds to cover some costs associated with the storms, but it didn’t even come close to cover all the costs. The town used the money to offset deficit spending which the state had authorized it to spend on related costs to the Aug. 8 storm. But North Andover had $1.6 million in costs and needed to use $400,000 from its budget surplus to cover the remaining deficit, Murphy-Rodrigues said.
This month, the town received another $133,150 as part of the Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program to study and manage the Cochichewick Brook floodplain.
High Street is situated adjacent to the brook. Most of the businesses in the East and West Mill Complex on High Street that were hit by the rising water did not have flood insurance.
A rollercoaster year
A year later, one last reminder of the floods remained: Jaime’s Restaurant is still closed — for now.
“I wasn’t going to come in today,” Jaime’s co-owner Jaime Faria, of Gloucester, said on the flood’s one-year anniversary. “But when the furniture is ready to come in, you just show up and take the delivery. “
Jaime’s Restaurant, which has operated at 25 High St. for 14 years, is the last unit in the mills to reopen. Faria hopes to be back in business within a month as he and his staff begin to put the new furniture back into the renovated space. Faria owns the restaurant with Wally Santos.
“It’s been a long year,” Faria said.
He reflected on the rollercoaster year he and Santos have experienced, filled with positives such as strong community support but coupled with many challenges in-between.
On the morning of Aug. 8, 2023, Faria recalled getting the first phone call about water in the basement of the business. He didn’t think much of it other than it was going to require a little cleaning.
An hour later, another staff member informed him the water had crept up to the basement’s second step.
“By the time I got here, you couldn’t even get into the basement as it was already waist deep,” Faria said.
He said the focus shifted to trying to salvage what he could, but there was only so much he could do with the amount of water flooding his business.
“You break windows so the water could get around and then you sit there,” Faria said. “I was just watching mine and Wally’s lives literally run down the river.”
Faria said for about a month and a half after the flood, he was overwhelmed by what had happened to his restaurant.
“I’m not going to lie, there was a period of depression where I had no desire to get out of bed,” Faria said.
Community support, however, helped him focus on how to reopen. The staff came together over lunch during those hard months and came up with a game plan
A GoFundMe page also raised more than $164,000 for the restaurant to cover some expenses in the trying year.
Most of Jaime’s staff will return. Jaime’s is in the process of hiring more workers as well. Loyal customers would stop by and ask if they could help and now they stop by to share their excitement for the reopening, Faria said.
“I tell people at the end of the day, my mom and dad are alive and my kids are doing great. This too shall pass and I’m excited to get people back in here eating burgers,” he said.
Back on track
The businesses in the area have also come together over the last year.
“The storm has made us a family,” Brides Across America CEO and Founder Heidi Janson said.
In the storms, Janson lost 80% of the inventory for her nonprofit organization. She had estimated $7 million in losses.
Brides Across America’s hub is located at 40 High St., where a warehouse stores the wedding dresses and formal wear given as gifts to military families and first-responders across the country.
Janson said she wanted to call it quits after the flood.
“I don’t even know how I had the energy to just keep moving on,” Janson said. “It was devastating.”
Brides Across America received a $5,000 grant for supplies.
“I was happy with that as we got some things we needed,” Janson said. “But we really got nothing. It’s like we didn’t exist anymore.”
Every time it rains, Janson said she thinks about her storefronts which now includes the relocation of her Tulle bridal store and Brides Across America outlet to High Street.
The nonprofit moved into its new home in a vacant space in West Mill. Janson said after the floods, some of the businesses moved to temporary spaces and stayed in their new spots.
While the charity endured challenges and a depletion of inventory for a bit, she said the nonprofit is back on track with donations to be able to hold its annual dress gifting events.
As the new store gets finishing touches, Janson said the future is bright for the nonprofit and hopes to work with a local winery to gift a military wedding soon.
“You have a vision and you know it’s going to work, but it took a lot of sleepless nights,” Janson said. “We persevered and kept pushing.”
Help along the way
Across the street, Good Day Cafe owner Gregg Lindsay and his cafe staff also persevered through the year.
Good Day Cafe, 19 High St., reopened on a limited basis in December and full time with their complete menu in January, five months after the flood.
“It’s been great to be open,” Lindsay said.
“There is always a bit of digging out of holes though because we were closed for so long.”
Lindsay said his business, along with others on High Street, did not initially receive any state or federal funding to help with the cleanup and rebuilding.
“Apparently our area didn’t meet the threshold,” Lindsay said. “It was disappointing because it was just out of nowhere.”
His restaurant received a small grant from the town. North Andover established a grant program through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds specifically for businesses affected by the floods. Murphy-Rodrigues said the town awarded $82,307 to 20 businesses.
But largely self-funding and community support through GoFundMe allowed Good Day Cafe to get back on track, he said.
The North Andover community came together to help the businesses and Lindsay said he experienced it firsthand as the Andover/North Andover YMCA allowed his staff to use its kitchen to fulfill catering orders while they waited to reopen.
“It would have been a lot more difficult to reopen because at least I was able to cover some bills through those months,” Lindsay said, adding they were closed during their busiest months.
Lindsay remembered Aug. 8, 2023 like it was yesterday.
“It was an extraordinarily rainy day,” Lindsay said. “It was coming down in buckets, but the cafe was filled with people.”
Water rose from the basement and made its way through the cafe.
“The hallway here and the street looked like a river,” Lindsay said.
But the plan was always to get back up and running.
“How we did it, that we kind of just made it up as we went along,” he said.
As he sat in the restaurant a year later, Lindsay had a smile on his face seeing the place just as full as it was on the day of the flood, with regular customers enjoying their meals.
This time around though, the skies were clear.
Staff Writer Angelina Berube may be contacted at aberube@gloucestertimes.com.