One hundred twelve hours: That’s how long it took for employees of the Tops Friendly Market in Hardwick, helped by store employees and contractors, to reopen after the store was flooded with a foot of water last week.
The store closed late last Monday at 5 p.m. as the Lamoille River next to it overflowed its banks. When the water receded, it left 4 inches of mud.
But by Saturday at 4 p.m., the store had reopened — its shelves fully restocked.
“Tuesday morning, when we opened the doors, it was a catastrophe,” said Mike Ritchie, Tops’ director of operations for the Northeast region. “To reopen and be hospital-clean in 112 hours is absolutely amazing.”
In the intervening hours, employees discarded all perishable items.
“All the produce, all the meat, all the deli, bakery, frozen foods, dairy, was lost, and we started from scratch,” said Ritchie. “And to actually see it happening day by day was just mind-blowing.”
The quick reopening was welcome news to Lynette Fontaine, a lifelong Hardwick resident. In addition to the co-op, which remained open, it’s one of only two grocery stores in town.
“Getting the stores back up and running is important,” she said.
Caja Taqueria
Elsewhere in town, Bryan Palilonis will have his restaurant, Caja Taqueria, up and running by Wednesday, he said.
Palilonis started with a food truck in 2016. He now has three, and he opened the restaurant in April. He has been a chef for 30 years, working first in South Florida, then moving to Vermont to work hospitality at Basin Harbor Resort in Ferrisburg for six years before buying the derelict building in Hardwick he converted into his home.
The Lamoille River flooded the area around the restaurant with 2 feet of water and 6 to 7 inches inside last Monday night, he said. He lost two refrigerators, and the propane tank from the other side of the building smashed into his 500-gallon tank, spewing propane even as they were evacuating.
Palilonis feels fortunate that his parents were up for a week’s vacation and were able to help him clean, fix and get the restaurant ready to reopen. When they came in on Tuesday morning, he said, they found the kitchen floor damaged. They stripped it, power-washed it, scraped the glue off, got new flooring at Home Depot on Wednesday, and put it right in. They pressure-washed the floors in the dining room, too.
The health inspector came Friday, he said, and gave him approval to reopen.
Palilonis did all this even as his house was destroyed by Alder Brook.
“It swallowed the house pretty good,” he said. “We lost pretty much our whole place that I built myself, with the help of my friends and family.”
He said there is about a foot-and-a-half of mud, plus rocks and wood, in his home. The flooring has given way, he said. Because he owned his home outright, he did not take out flood insurance, as would be required by a mortgage.
He, his partner and their child took their vehicles to the restaurant, where his parents’ RV was parked. They drove the RV to higher ground before coming back for the food trucks.
As he spoke, he was getting ready to load tortillas to take to a regular Monday night catering event at Highland Lodge, in Greensboro, of margaritas and tacos.
“They have the bar and liquor,” he said. “And we bring the food. We’re fortunate that we have a good summer still. We’ll be back.”
A friend, Mitchell Hunt, had come from Craftsbury to help. He said while they were having lunch, someone came by and offered the use of his tractor. Someone else had offered the use of a truck.
Hardwick House of Pizza
Michelle Demers hopes to be back in business Wednesday or Thursday. She and her husband, Tyler, own the Hardwick House of Pizza.
On Monday, handwritten signs on paper pizza plates in the window said: “Recovering from flood! Be back soon!” and ”Help wanted!”
Demers’ restaurant had 3 feet of water inside it last Tuesday, she said, but it appeared spotless by Monday.
“We have been here since the flood day and night,” she said. “We’ve ripped out all the bottom of the walls and we lost equipment that we’ve been replacing all week.”
They’ve had a lot of help, she said, from members of the community, family and her son’s friends.
“It’s just been an outpouring of love for us to open back up,” she said.
