Eight Cousins bookstore, Falmouth, Mass., which is closed indefinitely because of water damage, "has been working with the landlord, the cleaners, the insurance companies, the contractors, and other local businesses," it wrote in a post on its website. "We still have lots of questions, but we're starting to regenerate." The store's goal is to reopen this spring.
In its post, owners Sara Hines, Mary Fran Buckley and Eileen Miskell recalled the sequence of events that began a week ago today. "On January 9th, at 9 a.m., Sara was the first person to walk into the store," where she saw the collapsed ceiling and deluge of water. (See photo, right.) "With quick calls to Mary Fran and Eileen, as you can imagine the morning was a lot of conversations. We oscillated between 'Do this!' and 'No, wait! Don't do that!' 'Do this!' Clean up? Leave everything alone? No one was sure. Call the insurance company, the landlord, the employees working that day, put a sign on the door, and let the customers know: that much we did know to do.
"Fortunately, the office experienced minimal damage and we started to pack up the servers, hard drives, and other accessories. Write it down. That's always the advice. Write it down. So we did. In a situation like this, it could have been better, but it also could have been worse and one thing that started to emerge is that we were prepared. Not for this damage on this day, but for various potential emergencies. As partners, we've had lots of those hard conversations over the years. What do we do if...? Although those conversations are never easy, they are vital. And now we know why.
"We met with our staff Tuesday evening. They were waiting for us at the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce (our emergency meeting point, by the way). At that time, we felt fairly certain that the store was gone, but the business is intact. We couldn't make any promises, instead we asked for time. Give us a couple of days to answer some of the big questions. We've been asking the same thing from our customers and friends in the publishing industry. The outpouring of support has been amazing and we appreciate you giving us that time to think, plan, and grieve."
