A week after an EF3 tornado tore through parts of Jefferson County, some business owners are re-opening their stores.
Center Point, one of the hardest hit areas, suffered significant damage at its shopping center on Center Point Parkway and a smaller business area located at the intersection Highway 79 and Winewood Road.
The Secure First Bank lost much of its roof and siding. The bank's president Jordan Sullivan says the bank experienced $600,000 worth damage. Workers cleared the outside Monday and repaired the ATM drive-thru.
"The first thing that goes through your mind when you see it is how am I going to move forward? Where are we going to go from here," Sullivan says while looking at the wreckage.
He says, until the building's interior is ready for operations, employees will work out of a mobile work station in the parking lot. He says it will be open during the business' regular store hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m Monday through Friday.
On Center Point Parkway, McNaughton and Associates suffered extensive damage too. The business has since re-located down the road inside an office park at 1263 Center Point Parkway. Office manager Iver Brewer says no workers were inside at the time of the storms, and no paperwork was lost.
"Luckily, we had a building in a few hours and our power on. All of our records, nothing got wet and nothing was lost at all," Brewer says.
She says the move could be a permanent one for the company.
Center Point Chamber of Commerce officials tell ABC 33/40 that 38 Center Point businesses were either destroyed or suffered minor damage during the storms. They say most of those business owners plan to rebuild.
