Driftwood Beach Home & Garden reopens after Hurricane Helene

The coastal decor store in Longboat Key, Florida, made repairs and officially reopened in late October.

When Hurricane Helene made landfall in late September, Driftwood Beach Home & Garden in Longboat Key, Florida, flooded and temporarily had to shut down to make repairs. The retailer carries a wide variety of coastal-themed home decor, gifts, clothing and books. After about five weeks, the coastal shop officially reopened for business Oct. 29.

Owner Heather Rippy says this was the first time she has had to shut down since opening the shop about four years ago.

“We’ve had flooding in our neighborhood many times and storm surges, but we’d never had a flood come into the shop,” she says, adding that a few inches of water covered the shop after the late September storm, which damaged the drywall. A small community garden she built in the back of the shop also washed away in the storm.

Rippy notes that she was able to prepare a little ahead of the storm by moving all her merchandise into storage and a couple of friends’ homes to minimize losses, and she placed sandbags around the store’s doors.

She says she was fortunate the store did not flood after Hurricane Milton hit Florida in early October, but she remained closed until late October to clean, make minor repairs and move merchandise back.

With many businesses still rebuilding, Rippy shares that she wasn’t sure whether people would be ready to shop when she reopened in late October.

The reopening party in late October was one of the best days of business for the coastal retailer.

Driftwood Beach Home & Garden

“I worked hard to reopen, but I thought, ‘Is this silly? People are rebuilding their homes, will they come shop?’” she explains. “But people did. People were receptive, excited and supportive, ready to support a local business and ready to get back some sense of normalcy. Things are still a mess, but opening restored some sense of normalcy for people for them to be able to come back and shop.”

Rippy says she’s also found some ways to help local efforts and causes. She shares that Driftwood Beach Home & Garden has helped to host a pop-up shop for another local retailer that lost inventory.

“For people who haven’t opened yet, they have found some unique ways to maintain income through things like off-site pop-up shops and online sales,” says Rippy.

The retailer also has rebuilt its community garden behind the shop that Rippy hopes she can use to host local cooking and art classes in the new year.

“I want this shop to be a community space,” she says. “I want to keep it a fun, positive space for people, a happy place.”

She adds, “I hosted a reopening party in late October, and it was the best day of sales in the history of my shop. It was the busiest day I’ve had in the shop, and that meant so much to me. It was a testament that people value this business and that people wanted to show their support.”