One of Alyth’s flood-hit businesses has reopened for the first time, much to the delight of its owner.
Cafe in the Square owner Ashley Boath, 43, said she has never “felt so much love” as that shown by residents who offered to “roll their sleeves up” and help her when the deluge hit the east Perthshire town on July 17.
Despite her car being written off after lying in a “surreal pile” of vehicles due to the flashflood that day, Ms Boath told The Courier it was “fantastic to have some normality” by getting ready for work on Tuesday.
“I’m over the moon that the Caf in the Square is reopening today; it’s a total relief,” she said.
“When the flood came, water was up to the height of the windows in the caf, but, fortunately, the water level dropped later on. However, we were left with a lot of sludge and silt which had to be mopped up.”
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Ms Boath also runs the Bakehouse in Alyth but revealed that it will still take some time to reopen that building after water rose five feet during the flood.
“We were gutted when the Bakehouse was flooded,” she added. “However, we’ve reopened the caf ahead of time, as the loss adjusters said it would probably take three months to do it and we’ve managed in three and half weeks.
“I’d like to thank the people of Alyth their support has been absolutely amazing.
“I can’t describe the feeling of love but Alyth is that sort of place, when you walk down the street you always meet people who say ‘hello’ everybody knows each other.
“Lots of local people came into the caf and just said ‘let’s roll our sleeves up’ it was great.
“People have really excelled themselves with support and we’ve also had help from suppliers, some of whom gave us products and cleaning items for nothing.”
She continued: “We decided to open up a takeaway facility in the caf as the Bakehouse will be closed for a while and there are lots of workmen still in Alyth, helping with the clear-up. We felt it was needed due to that.”
The reopening of the caf follows on from ironmonger David Sim informing residents he is back in business last week, along with JRT’s Gents and Juniors Hair Salon, stating they will be using a shop in Airlie Street for a couple of months.
Perth and Kinross Council has embarked on a multi-million-pound scheme to help Alyth, and this has included building a new footbridge in Cairnleith Place.
More than 20 council homes were damaged in the flood, with around 150 tonnes of waste material being removed from properties.