Family business owners have been left devastated as their cafe was forced to close by flooding — just weeks after it reopened.
Award-winning Pizzini Coffee Shop opened 14 years ago on High Street, Bottesford and has been a growing “community hub”.
But on Monday (January 6), the family went to open the café around 8am to find the business already flooded due to the torrential rain and melted snow which caused widespread flooding in the village and surrounding areas, which got worse throughout the day.
Ralph and Teresa Morgan
Ralph and Teresa Morgan and their son Charlie said that they had never having seen or experienced floods.
“When we got here and saw our business like this, we just cried, we were really upset, it’s a heart-breaking situation,” said Teresa.
The village was deeply impacted following the flooding of the River Devon, River Smite and the village’s ford by St Mary the Virgin’s Church, which left the main street looking like what was described as a “river”.
The business had only just reopened after being closed for six weeks while Ralph recovered from a knee surgery.
They now face a wait for their insurers to evaluate the financial damage, and the family admits that the majority of their electronics has been damaged and they have no idea when they will be back in business.
“The Vale of Belvoir Lions were particularly good and the Paveway company dropped sandbags off as well, that was really helpful,” Teresa said, “We’ve lost earnings, both of us are self-employed, so we don’t get any money and now we will have to replace all our equipment.”
But Teresa said that everyone has been supporting each other in the village in the recovery process:
“We had hundreds of messages of support and a lot of people have been in yesterday and today to ask if we needed anything and how they could help,” she said
“All the businesses were supporting each other — we had Paul’s Restaurant come and check on us, it was a real village effort, all the village pulled together.
“There were a lot of people in the village that were in bits because it was quite emotional for them because this is their meeting place.
“It is just humbling to see that everyone is behind you and certainly made us feel more positive.”
Charlie said that an 85-year-old lady went down to the cafe requesting a mopping bucket to help the family clean and get back on their feet, and that people had been directing traffic to stop coming through the village as vehicles driving in the floods were creating waves and gushes of water.
“As much as this is negative and not only affected us as a business but those other villages and people’s houses, there are people worse than us, so we have to be positive and that is the only way that you can be at this time.
“You have to be hopeful, not only because the village got behind Pizzini as a coffee shop when we’ve been closed for seven weeks, but to see the village, and surrounding villages, come together to support us when we re-open.”