CEI Bookstore recovering from tornado damage
ATHENS, Ala. (WHNT) — A local business is working to rebuild after its building was severely damaged by a tornado.
At the downtown Athens Square, one by one businesses are working to get back up to speed while still trying to dig itself out of the debris.
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The roof of the CEI Bookstore was completely torn off by the Dec. 28 tornado. The store is struggling to recover the building a month later.
'It was really surreal and it's hard to put into words,' said Lance Taylor, the Director of Operations for CEI.
Taylor said it was almost midnight when he was awakened by a shocking text message from a neighbor who informed him that the entire roof of the building that stood since the 1950s was lying in the middle of Marion Street.
'By morning we could really see the extent of the damage, just not a stitch of roof and because of that all paper materials and books were destroyed,' Taylor said. 'We knew that it would be very little that we would be able to salvage.'
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The impact of the EF-1 tornado is still visible at CEI.
Thousands of books were thrown across the floor and its brick walls crumbled to the ground. But thanks to neighbors the store now operates in a temporary warehouse adjacent to it until insurance determines if the building can be salvaged.
'That would have to be decided by us as well as the property owner,' Taylor explained. 'We're working closely with them to go forward on that and once we hear from insurance and also the engineers, we'll know what can be done to the building.'
Taylor added that they have been doing a lot of online work and shipping orders while trying to recover from the devastation.
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