Mary St businesses face long road to recovery after floods

Devastated Gympie business owners yet to reopen after the floods face a long road to recovery, if they recover at all, with some expecting to not open for months, some in weeks and some in days. Some will never reopen. Here is what they said.

Mary St businesses have revealed the devastating impact and the ongoing effects of the February floods, and whether or not they will be able to reopen.

Businesses in Gympie’s CBD were inundated with muddy flood water after the Mary River peaked at 22.96m on Sunday, February 27, the worst flood in more than 120 years.

Once the flood waters receded, the CBD resembled a warzone.

As the clean-up continues into its second week, many businesses in the CBD have been stripped bare, while others struggled without power as they tried to return to normal.

The Gympie Times spoke with numerous businesses who remained on-site to finish the clean up on Tuesday, and many were optimistic about when they would reopen.

But some were not so optimistic.

Pazazz Fabrics and Haberdashery, which has been in Mary St for more than two decades, closed their doors after they were taken under by the floods.

Pazazz Fabrics and Haberdashery will not reopen.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have made the decision to close Pazazz Fabrics after 24 years. It has been a journey I will never forget,” owner Charmaine Compagnoni wrote.

“To the beautiful people, family, friends and wonderful strangers who helped get all our stock and fittings out under very difficult conditions, you have my heartfelt thank you.”

Tumeric One Fifty owner Matt Craven described the clean-up as an emotional “rollercoaster”.

“Some days its positive and other days it’s like ‘I don’t think I can do this’,” he said.

He said the clean-up had been ongoing since Monday last week (February 28), with only two power points in the building working to “dry the place out”.

He said investigations were continuing into the full structural damage to the building, but a wall had already been replaced between the Thai restaurant and its neighbouring business.

“I’m thinking about a month (before we reopen), I reckon ... Three weeks would be ideal,” he said.

Empire Hotel co-owner Philomena Reuben fought back tears while relaying the extent of the damage to the business, which has copped about $1.4 million in damage and losses.

“At this stage we’re looking at three months (until we reopen again),” she said.

“We were hoping to be reopen this week, but we don’t think that will be happening.”

The business is still without power, which Ms Reuben said had affected the ongoing clean-up effort.

“It is what it is.”

Gympie Toyworld and Twiga Books owner Lorraine Broadley said flood waters inundated the businesses and reached the second level of the building.

This year is Toyworld’s 50th anniversary, Mrs Broadley said.

The ground floor ceiling in Toyworld was destroyed and the light fixtures needed to be replaced, but thankfully, all stock across both businesses was saved.

She said the February flood was the worst she had seen, but the clean-up was progressing thanks to an army of volunteers to help.

“It’s keeping me going ... all the advice from my family (after the floods) was to walk away, but I’m not going to turn my back on that sort of support,” she said.

Neither the bookshop nor Toyworld were at risk of folding, according to Mrs Broadley, but there was no expected date on when either business would reopen.

“We’ve got major building repairs to do, but we’re running to the schedule of the tradies,” she said.

Further down Mary St at nearby Goodyear Jewellers, owner Dave Hetherington had finished cleaning up his shop after the effort began last Monday, February 28.

But despite the business being clean, repairing structural damage remained to be seen, with a metre-long hole in the ceiling.

Like their Toyworld neighbours, water had reached a foot into the second storey of the building, according to Mr Hetherington.

He said the full extent of the damage would be assessed on Wednesday, which would give a more accurate depiction on when the shop could reopen, but for now, he expected Goodyear would not reopen for “at least a couple of weeks”.

“Electricians have got a big job to do ... the air conditioners may have to be replaced (and) the security systems have got to be replaced.” he said.

But some were more fortunate than others, including Playback Gympie owner Aisha Belling.

Playback Gympie owner Aisha Belling.

Only weeks ago, Playback had moved to a new location at 107 Mary St; a decision influenced by the January floods.

But that did not mean the business was unscathed.

Mrs Belling said she was optimistic water would not reach into the arcade, given its height above street level, but she was wrong.

Water reached ankle deep, destroyed five of the 20 arcade machines inside the building, and was the cause of a mammoth clean-up effort inside the business.

“This building has never flooded, and it was built in ‘74,” Mrs Belling said.

“We did clean every single carpet tile, and there are hundreds of them; some of them could be saved, some of them not so much.”

Fortunately, Playback had its electricity turned back on relatively early in comparison to other businesses, Mrs Belling said, and the goal now was to reopen the shop portion of Playback as soon as possible.

“We’re hoping for Thursday ... it sounds optimistic, but we’re really hoping to get there,” she said.

Electronics hub PC Place reopened on Monday morning - with a few changes.

Owner Nick Green said PC Place was one of the hardest hit businesses in the CBD, with water “over the building” during the height of the floods.

But in spite of that, Mr Green said power had been restored on Thursday, March 3, and the business had enforced temporary changes so they could still operate while minor repairs were ongoing.

“We’ve set up a temporary bench so we can trade straight from the front ... we’ve got a couple of stations set up so we can still do tech for people too,” he said.