Community shows ‘heartwarming’ support after flood damage at Waterloo hobby store
Posted Aug 31, 2021 07:23:00 PM.
After days of hot & humid weather in Waterloo Region, Sunday saw a crack in those conditions – marked by heavy thunderstorms and record amounts of rainfall. With nearly 70 millimetres falling throughout the day, more than half of that rain fell between the evening hours of 7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., creating some severe deluges of water throughout the region – including in the lot around J&J Cards and Collectibles in Waterloo.
That rain, unfortunately, made its way into the Weber Street North hobby store, flooding the location in nearly four inches of water. Jason Schill is the co-owner of J&J Cards & Collectibles and said he received a call around 9 p.m. that evening from a family member, warning him of a “mass amount of water backup” in the area along with a notification that he should come down and check out the store.
“There was probably a good foot and a half of water in our parking lot with water splashing up against the building,” said Schill. “When we got in (…) front to back, our storage rooms … everything was floating in about four inches of water. It was a little disheartening to walk into and see what our first plan of attack was going to be…”
Since discovering the damage, Schill said staff have been working extra hours to get the store back into working order, with fans and dehumidifiers running to dry out the store as quickly as possible. In addition to the water, Schill noted that the flooding brought in a heavy amount of dirt requiring a thorough clean-up effort.
Posting about the ordeal on social media, it wasn’t long before community members began to extend their well-wishes, as well as offers to support the long-established store in their efforts of recovery. With some patrons offering to deliver food, purchase gift cards to support the store financially, or even offering their own hand in helping to clean up, Schill said the messages he and his staff have received have been “heartwarming.”
“We’ve had customers sending donuts, coffees, and offers to help and everything … it’s been really fantastic.” said Schill. “We knew we had a great community – through the pandemic we experienced that; when we were in lock down, our customers rallied around us.”
“To see that with this again … it just really shows what a great community we have – and our customers … their loyalty and their support is just unmatched by anyone.”
As staff at J&J work to find what the extent of the damage to the store and stock is, Schill said the big obstacle that remains is learning whether insurance will help to cover the impact of the flooding.
“With a lot of our products being paper based, as soon as water hits it … 90 per cent of it is just not salvageable.” said Schill. “We rented a big storage bin, and anything that’s wet, we’ve shifted out of the store and held until we get further notice from insurance.”
As the clean-up effort continues, Schill said he’s hopeful the store will be able to reopen to welcome customers some time on Wednesday – though he adds that the support he and his staff have received has given them the drive they need to get the work done.
“Through Instagram, Facebook, personal emails and phone calls, it’s just been endless …” said Schill. “It gives us the motivation to get going, get opened up again so we can get everyone back in.”
