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A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aerial view of the widespread flooding last summer of the Missouri River, this near the Fort Calhoun nuclear reactor in Blair, Neb., north of Omaha. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Iowa antique mall reopens after a summer of flooding

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aerial view of the widespread flooding last summer of the Missouri River, this near the Fort Calhoun nuclear reactor in Blair, Neb., north of Omaha. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aerial view of the widespread flooding last summer of the Missouri River, this near the Fort Calhoun nuclear reactor in Blair, Neb., north of Omaha. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

PERCIVAL, Iowa (AP) – After months of worry and water, Finders Keepers Antique Mall & Coffee Shoppe is open.

The 13,000-square-foot mall in Percival features 152 display cases—a total off 900 pieces of glass—with thousands of antiques from a variety of dealers. The cases are full again, the vendors are back.

“Oh, we’re really excited to be here. This really means a lot to us,” said Alicia Chrastil, who owns the mall with her husband of 35 years, Jim. “It was a summer of uncertainty.”

In October 2004, the Chrastils—longtime antique collectors and dealers—opened their location at 2085 Crossroads Drive, just off Interstate 29 at the Iowa Highway 2 interchange. Alicia’s brother, Les Robbins, owns The Crossroads commercial and industrial business area off the interstate.

“One day I said, ‘You need an antique mall down here,’” Alicia remembered. “He said, ‘Why don’t you do it.’”

So they purchased a lot from him and began construction of the building. Along with antiques, Finders Keepers offers a coffee shop that serves baked goods, homemade soups, wraps and other items.

“We love antiques, of course. And we enjoy the people we’ve gotten to know. Our dealers are like family, and our customers are the best,” Alicia said.

During the summer of 2011, the waters of the Missouri River crept closer, along with fear. On May 30, county officials told the Chrastils they had a week to evacuate the building.

“It was surreal, someone calling you telling you to get out,” Alicia said. “I kept thinking it was a bad dream and I’d wake up. But I never did.”

The Chrastils and their dealers loaded three semi-trailers with antiques, with the help of family, friends and customers. The Chrastils contracted a company to construct an 8-foot berm around the property and added sandbags on top of that.

“Then we had to just wait it out,” she said. “It was a hard summer.”

Water reached the berm, settling about halfway up, after a levee in town broke on June 30. The floodwaters, however, never entered the building. There was some water damage, from heavy rains and groundwater seepage, though.

When the couple were finally able to return to the store in October they did so by boat.

“It was a mud mess,” Alicia said.

The Chrastils went to work cleaning Finders Keepers, including one clean-up job that took three weeks: the aforementioned glass. Dealers and customers helped get the building back to normal.

“They’d clean, bring us meals. Throughout the flood ordeal we’d get calls and messages from customers—‘We’re thinking about you,’ ‘We’re praying for you,’” Alicia said. “That was just priceless. We couldn’t have done this without them.”

On Nov. 26, the mall reopened its doors and a grand reopening and open house is planned on Feb. 9 from 4 to 6 p.m., including a ribbon cutting at 5 p.m. The mall is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from October through March and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily from April through September.

“We’re tremendously excited for them and our local economy. It’s great to have them reopen,” said Rebecca Turner with Nebraska City Tourism & Commerce.

“This is good for both sides of the river,” she said. “They’re great ambassadors for the community.”

Alicia joked that she says the mall’s “community” is Nebraska City, Neb.

“Our zip code is Percival, our phone number is Hamburg and we’re closest to Nebraska City,” she said.

They’re open, but the recovery continues. The Chrastils had flood insurance on the mall, but received no financial assistance from the government. Also, some dealers didn’t return and estimated it would take about five years to build business back to preflood levels.

“But we’re glad to be back,” she said.

Information from: The (Council Bluffs, Iowa) Daily Nonpareil, http://www.nonpareilonline.com

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-01-07-12 0047GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aerial view of the widespread flooding last summer of the Missouri River, this near the Fort Calhoun nuclear reactor in Blair, Neb., north of Omaha. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aerial view of the widespread flooding last summer of the Missouri River, this near the Fort Calhoun nuclear reactor in Blair, Neb., north of Omaha. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.