LUMBERTON — More than a year after floodwaters invaded Somewhere In Time Antiques, causing tens of thousands of dollars in damages and destroying piles of irreplaceable artifacts, the mall is back to business.

It took some hard work and a lot money to get there

“It was quite a job,” owner Bill Greene said. “It’s like starting from scratch.”

Greene remembers just a year ago parking at the IHOP restaurant two doors down and wading through murky water just to reach the door of the 9,000-square-foot, two-story antiques mall he has owned with his wife, Becky, for nearly 30 years.

“We couldn’t drive down Kahn Drive for three day after the storm,” said Greene, referring to Hurricane Florence.

The antiques shop that faces Interstate 95 was built in 1990 and survived the floods that came three years ago when Hurricane Matthew devastated the city, giving him confidence that his shop would be fine as Florence made its way to the Carolinas in September 2018. He was told on the morning of Sept. 17 that floodwaters crept up farther than they did in October 2016, and had left 8 inches of water on the mall’s bottom floor.

“It just had a musty smell in just a half a day’s time,” Greene said.

The Greene family, which includes Bill and Becky and their son, daughters and three grandsons, were at work hours after they found out about the damage, trying to clear what the receded floodwaters had left behind. At the time, Greene counted himself lucky that damages were not as bad as what some other businesses in Lumberton has sustained, but as time progressed and damages were assessed, he realized he had just touched the tip of the storm-damage iceberg.

He hired Servpro to help restore the many pieces in the business. They packed up all of the antiques and loaded them into pods, he said. All of the furniture was stacked up and moved to the center of building.

“We must of had 400 boxes of merchandise that they packed up and put in these pods,” Greene said.

It wasn’t as simple as throwing away items. Greene and his family had to inspect each item and decide if it was repairable.

“We would go through every piece of furniture just looking at it and seeing how sturdy it was,” he said.

Once the items were removed or moved, 2 feet of all the walls were torn out and replaced because of mold, Greene said.

“They tore the toilets and the sinks out the bathrooms and put them in the middle of the floor,” he said. “They pulled up all of our rugs and carpets and threw them in the dumpster.”

The rugs that were thrown out were oriental and antique, and worth thousands of dollars, he said.

“We just thought they could never be cleaned, so they went in the dumpster,” he said.

Greene found himself throwing away piles of antiques that could never be replaced.

“’Ugh…in the trash,’” Greene said. “We would remember. It was mind-boggling.”

Green estimated that about $85,000 worth of antiques were either destroyed or not repairable.

The cleaning took about three weeks.

“Then we had to start rebuilding,” Green said.

Including the Servpro crew, Greene and his family had to hire a contractor, plumber and electrician to get the business back on track. The nearly $100,000 bill came almost completely out of pocket.

“We had no insurance because we’d never been in a flood zone,” Greene said. “We have it now but we didn’t have it then. We didn’t think we needed it.”

Once the building was ready to open, Greene had the task of remembering just how all of the furniture was displayed in the store. He described it as “putting all of the puzzle pieces back together.”

“We had to do everything in order,” he said.

Somewhere In Time Antiques officially reopened in June, but Greene still keeps a large sign out front displaying “OPEN” for out-of-state customers that visit throughout the year while traveling along I-95.

“Some people go from Maine to Florida every year, and they always try to stop by — when they’re going by and when they’re coming back,” he said. “They’ve been thrilled with the progress we’ve made.”

The mall now has 10 of the 15 vendor spaces rented out, Green said. Even now, with having the flood insurance, Greene fears another flood.

“The insurance pays for a lot, but they don’t handle all of the details,” he said. “It’s heck of a lot of work.”

He is now getting back to what he enjoyed most about the business.

“It’s just a fun business,” he said. “At my age, I feel like I deserve it.”

Bill Greene, the co-owner of Somewhere In Time Antiques, stands in the newly renovated building that suffered nearly $100,000 in damages caused by floodwaters from Hurricane Florence. The business is located on Kahn Drive in Lumberton.
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_DSCN7803.jpgBill Greene, the co-owner of Somewhere In Time Antiques, stands in the newly renovated building that suffered nearly $100,000 in damages caused by floodwaters from Hurricane Florence. The business is located on Kahn Drive in Lumberton.

Somewhere In Time is now open after floodwaters from Hurricane Florence shuttered the business for about nine months.
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_DSCN7801.jpgSomewhere In Time is now open after floodwaters from Hurricane Florence shuttered the business for about nine months.

Bill Greene positions antique medicine bottles on a display at Somewhere In Time Antiques, the business he co-owns with his wife, Becky. Greene reopened the business this past summer after floodwaters from Hurricane Florence shuttered the business for about nine months.
https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/web1_DSCN7795.jpgBill Greene positions antique medicine bottles on a display at Somewhere In Time Antiques, the business he co-owns with his wife, Becky. Greene reopened the business this past summer after floodwaters from Hurricane Florence shuttered the business for about nine months.
Somewhere In Time Antiques back in business after being damaged by hurricane

Tomeka Sinclair

Features editor

Tomeka Sinclair can be reached at [email protected] or 910-416-5865.