SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The January floods turned a Logan Heights business into a dirty swimming pool quickly after the storms.
Not long after the waters receded, the owner of the San Diego Made Factory is slowly returning to normal after repairing the building.
The business barely survived, but its wild, traumatic ride to recovery is finally coming to an end.
ABC 10News reporter Moses Small has been following the story for months. He spoke to co-founder Sarah Anderson just days after she watched the business fill with brown water.
"The roll-up doors on the side of the building caved in. A tidal wave, a four-foot wave of water came in," said Anderson. "Rushed in, and then made its way through another door and just filled this entire space."
The water was six inches deep, all around the building. On one of the walls, the owners keep a newspaper clipping about how intense the storm was.
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At first, the water was so deep no one could access the stairs to get in. But when Anderson and her business partners finally got back in, they found a dire situation.
The necessary repairs were so expensive and time-consuming, Anderson didn't know if the San Diego Made Factory would ever recover.
"We essentially had to cut out about two and a half feet of all the walls, because the water had gotten into the drywall," said Anderson. "Re-finished the floors, re-drywalled everything, painted everything."
Those repairs took 39 days of working around the clock, but they didn't do it alone. Members of their team spent that time helping rebuild.
The repairs cost $110,000 total, and a fundraiser paid for more than half of that.
This isn't the first time the San Diego Made Factory ran into problems since it opened in 2019. Anderson told ABC 10News it avoided flood water entering the building a few years ago.
So, Anderson still worries about weak drainage in Logan Heights in the event of another storm. But she hopes this is a new chapter for the San Diego Made Factory, and the dozens of tenants who use the space to run their own businesses.
"It's crazy to think back... The beginning of this year was so traumatic, so tragic," said Anderson. "Now it's feeling very positive and hopeful. We're very grateful that we're in this position, because I know not everybody is."
The San Diego Made Factory provides office spaces, holds events and allows guests to book the space for their own events. Follow this link to check out their website.
