The owner of a Cape Breton convenience store is picking up the pieces after her business was destroyed in Wednesday’s storm.
Rachel Gould says strong winds ripped the structure from its foundation and tossed it through the air. She found the store lying on its roof in a splintered mess Thursday morning.
“Everything is gone. My memories are gone. My living is gone,” says Gould, who owned the Eskasoni First Nation store for 14 years.
Gould’s daughter was awakened by the storm’s alarm and was shocked when she looked out her window.
“I ran back in my room. I had to tell her ‘your store is totaled,’” says Madison Gould. “’It’s not in its spot anymore’ I told her.”
“I got out of my car and just went hysterical, hysterical,” says Rachel Gould. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Gould says she is devastated over the loss of her business but is overwhelmed by the support shown in her community. She says her inbox is flooded with well wishes and offers to help rebuild.
“Once this community starts going, it starts going,” says longtime customer Malian Marshall. “Once they start rebuilding this place, maybe people will donate material.”
Gould says she plans to rebuild and hopes to have her new store up and running by the summer.
“Hope to get it up by June, but I’m going to make it hurricane-proof.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ryan MacDonald
