While news of the flooded storefronts at Altadena’s storied Mariposa Junction brought out buckets and mops and wall scrapers, it also launched a brigade of helpers from a community well-versed in picking up after a disaster.
The five businesses that survived the deadly Eaton fire almost one year ago just celebrated their official reopening in November, in time for what they hoped would be a busy holiday season. But Southern California’s wettest Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on record instead brought soggy ceilings, damaged merchandise and hours of cleanup work to Mariposa Junction Friday.
Manisa Ianakiev of Sidecca knew something was amiss when she saw fellow business owners along Mariposa Street sweeping water out their doors on Dec. 24. Sidecca, Altadena’s women-owned apparel store with a loyal following, had just redone its interiors and replenished all its merchandise following the Eaton fire.
To find its pink floors underwater and some equipment and goods, including many variations of “Altadena” wear and wares, damaged was overwhelming, Ianakiev said.
What helped were customers who donated tarps, push brooms and trash cans for the immediate cleanup.
Responding to online requests on how people can help, the store has started a “Here We Go Again” fund on its website. “I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of everyone,” owner Adriana Molina said, even as she and Ianakiev admitted to being “so tired” after hours cleaning up and watching what the rains would do.
“It’s a lot,” Molina said. “It’s hard.”
Meteorologist Edgar McGregor forecasts an end to the rain by midnight Friday, Dec. 26, with a dry weekend in store. Overall, rainfall totals are coming in lower than expected, he added, with foothill communities catching from four to eight inches of rain this time around.
For Sidecca’s owners and fans, though, that was enough wet stuff to put a sad punctuation on “the worst year ever,” as one customer said online. Plans for an official reopening in November already had to be pushed back because of rain.
Ben McGinty was some 70 miles away when Debbie Collins, owner of Ms. Dragon Print & Copy called to report that stores had flooded on the block from the evening of Dec. 23 through the morning of Christmas Eve.
McGinty, owner of the art and vintage showroom Gallery at the End of the World, a few doors down from Sidecca, and some friends spent Friday scraping walls and ceilings and wielding mops in order to open Saturday, Dec. 27, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thankfully, landlord Joey Galloway was on hand to quickly supervise fixing leaks and the gallery’s offerings, including pieces from artists affected by the wildfires, remain undamaged, McGinty said.
“We knew the rains were strong,” he added. “There’s been a lot of mopping.”
Debbie Collins, owner of Ms. Dragon Print & Copy, this latest episode brought back a rush of guilt brought on after the Eaton fire, which destroyed more than 9,000 structures and killed 19 people.
Collins, who celebrated 35 years as an Altadena business owner this year, said just like in January, Ms. Dragon Print & Copy emerged unscathed after the waves of rain.
“I’m doing fine compared to everyone else,” Collins said. “After the fire, I didn’t have power for a few weeks, but I never closed. There was a week and a half that I was not physically here, but I worked at home. So the weird thing is I’m in a different position now just like after the fire, because I didn’t get any damage.”
What Collins has is a willingness to help out, “just trying to be here for people, and trying to keep the store feeling and looking the same, which I hope has been helpful,” she said.
She still shakes her head that the five stores: her print shop; Sidecca; McGinty’s Gallery at the End of the World; Carciofi Design Paper Boutique & Studio; and Betsy Restaurant, made it through the fire even as everything else from three directions burned down, including Altadena icon Altadena Hardware which occupied two storefronts in the Woodbury Building block next door. Beloved Amara Kitchen, Wellema Hat Company and Café de Leche nearby also burned down.
Caroline Britton, owner of the stationery shop, said the boutique sustained some water damage in the back, but would be open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Collins credits employees at Betsy for raising the alarm on the rain damage and for helping them contain the soggy mess. She said the area under construction next to her shop, which Betsy owner Tyler Wells was working on, sustained a lot of damage.
“I was inside the building and it sounded like I was outside in the rain, there was just as much pounding rain coming inside,” she said.
But if online comments and phone calls are any indication, community members are at the ready to jump in and heed the Altadena Chamber of Commerce’s drumbeat to “Shop Altadena” and support local businesses.