Local businesses recovering after winter storm

SALISBURY, Md. – Believe it or not, the recent winter storm didn’t just bring the cold– in a way, it also helped melt it.

Monday morning, Nicole Rogers woke up to 100 gallons of meted ice cream in her shop. Luckily, she has insurance, but she said she’s still feeling the impact.

“We lost power overnight, Sunday night, in the blizzard, like a lot of businesses did downtown. We didn’t know we lost power until the next morning, and by that point we already lost all of our ice cream,” Nicole said.

“When you’re a small family-owned business, that hits hard pretty quickly, especially in the winter when it’s already a slow time,” she added. “We’ve had pretty cold temperatures this January and February, so it’s already been a slower winter for us than normal.”

And Nicole wasn’t the only one to take a hit. Her next-door neighbor, Delmarva Home Grown, had to scramble to save their inventory.

“One of our neighbors called and said, ‘Hey, I heard power was out downtown. How are the plants?’ We freaked out and immediately rode down here,” said owner, Mitch Marriner.

The hundreds of tropical plants inside of his store couldn’t survive the near freezing temperatures, so Mitch and his wife had to improvise.

“We came in like it was a house invasion for plants, and handled our business,” Mitch said.

“I had some flashlights, found some head lamps, and started packing up boxes and loading up the Yukon XL,” he added.

Both businesses are working to pick up the pieces and Nicole said the community has played a big part in helping them.

“I feel like a lot of people supported and shared and I think it’s because there were a lot of other people Affected by this. We’re all feeling it and we’re trying to rally together.”