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‘The costs keep compounding’: A North Andover cafe is girding to start over after flood devastation
The Davis and Furber Mills development, which houses more than 90 businesses, was badly damaged.
Regulars at the Good Day Cafe in North Andover know it to be cozy and inviting. But they might not recognize it if they walked in today: The lights are off, chairs are on tables, and the pastry case is empty.
It’s just one of the many small businesses shuttered this week by torrential rain and flooding in eastern Massachusetts. The owners are determined to reopen, but they’ll practically be starting from scratch.
The family-owned breakfast and lunch joint is no stranger to hardship: It opened for business in January 2020, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But husband and wife owners Gregg and Natalie Lindsay stayed the course, branching into catering, to-go ordering, and curbside pickup. Even after the worst of the pandemic had passed and they were able to reopen, inflation and supply chain issues lingered. It took more than two years, Gregg said, to return to some version of normal.
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“It honestly seemed like over the last six to eight months, things were really getting back on track and we were looking forward to a bright future,” Gregg said. “Until last Tuesday, when the place got completely flooded.”
Downpours inundated eastern Massachusetts on Tuesday, pummeling the Merrimack Valley with heavy flooding. Good Day Cafe’s basement filled with water, and the shop’s main floor was submerged about six inches deep, Gregg said.
“We’re going to have to start from scratch with a lot of things,” like refrigerators and other electronic equipment ruined by water damage, he explained. Much of the furniture was also damaged beyond repair. Then there’s the food, which expired after the cafe lost power Tuesday. By Friday, the water had receded but the cafe still had no electricity.
Good Day Cafe isn’t the only small business in the area that’s hurting after this week’s flooding. The entire Davis and Furber Mills development in North Andover, which houses more than 90 businesses including the cafe, was badly damaged, the Boston Globe reported.
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“A lot of nice people that have been put into a bad situation,” Gregg said. “I think everybody’s in the same boat. I don’t think anybody really would have had flood insurance.”
Without flood insurance — which they never expected to need — the Lindseys will have to raise funds to rebuild themselves. There’s a chance that state and federal emergency management agencies MEMA and FEMA could provide some relief, but that could take months.
“It’s not a quick-moving process,” Gregg said. “And time is really critical right now,” because the cafe has bills to pay and employees to support, even with no revenue coming in.
Congressman Seth Moulton, who represents the area, visited North Andover on Thursday and spoke to press outside Davis and Furber Mills. He said it’s too early to say whether there will be federal aid for the community there, according to the Globe. But he added that disasters like this one were getting harder to ignore, even for “all the climate deniers in Congress.”
“It’s hitting their districts, too,” Moulton said.
A GoFundMe started by a family friend has already raised more than $18,000. Reading through the list of donors, Gregg recognized many Good Day Cafe customers’ names.
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“We’ve developed a lot of great relationships,” he said. “It kind of puts things in perspective that they’re in our camp and they want to see us reopen and they really love this place.”
As generous as the donations are, they pale in comparison to the full cost of reviving the cafe.
“It’s the tip of the iceberg, what we’re seeing right now,” Gregg knows. “And once you start to dig in a little bit more … the costs keep compounding.”
The Lindsays have every intention of bouncing back. Their goal is to reopen in the coming months, Gregg said, though nothing is certain after a disaster like this one.
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