By Tanya De Jesus
tdejesus@kcautv.com
Businesses in Decatur, Nebraska are managing to staying afloat after this summer's historic Missouri River flood drowned the town's economy. But it's been the opening of an important lifeline that's giving businesses a push.
For about 5 months the Decatur Bridge was shut down because of the Missouri River flood.
"It was almost like you needed a helicopter to drop into Decatur if you didn't know how to get around," said Jim Mussack.
But since it re–opened in November drivers are getting around town and boosting the economy. Dave Farber and his co–worker are back working at the bridge's toll booth and they say many businesses are cashing in from folks driving through.
Farber says, "Anywhere from, I'm just guessing a thousand to 1,300 a day."
Brenda Heckenlaiblee works at Tooly's Bottle Shop and she says they lost their busiest season during the flood but she says they'll be able to recover judging on one thing.
"Just the general traffic. Like right now if you look out the window you'll see trucks going buy probably every minute and before there was nothing because nothing came our way," said Heckenlaiblee.
Over at the Green Lantern restaurant, Jim Mussack says business was down 40% during the flood. Now it's had it's busiest holiday season yet but he still thinks people are staying away.
Mussack says, "People are creatures of habit and if they get used to going some place else it takes a bit to turn them again but yeah, we're seeing a lot of people like we're used to seeing. It's great to be honest with you."
The general consensus is that businesses will be able to recover their losses as long as the flood waters don't strike again.
