Traci Tidd and John Cox Sr. may never be as happy to see a new year as they are this week.
“Next year has to get better, right?” Tidd asked Friday.
Tidd spoke as she joined Cox and a team of other helpers to remove the damaged metal from the roof of This & That Flea Market, 214 S. Washington Ave.
The building sustained heavy damage during a Dec. 18 bout of gusty winds that blew throughout the day.
The flea market has been closed since then, while Cox and crew worked feverishly Friday and Saturday to get the roof repaired sufficiently enough to protect the building’s contents from potential rain or snow.
“The one saving grace is it hasn’t rained since then,” Cox said.
Unfortunately, Sunday’s strong winds dislodged more of the roof.
THE ROOF damage was the second such body blow the couple have endured in recent weeks.
On Nov. 22, Tidd’s home in rural Neosho Falls was destroyed by a fire. Since then, she and her teenaged children have stayed with Cox while they figure out their next steps.
“We’d planned on sorting through things out there (at the farm) through the Christmas break,” Tidd said. “Then this happened.”
COX AND TIDD were regrouping from the fire, and had decided to take a quick vacation prior to the Christmas holiday — “my first vacation in nine years,” Cox said — when the wind storm swept through.
The damage apparently was exacerbated by a large second-story window that was blown in, Cox surmised.
“The wind really started swirling in here, and there were enough bad spots in the roof that it literally just lifted off the metal,” he said.
Half of the metal was rolled forward onto itself, exposing a layer of damaged wood beneath.
“If we didn’t have vents at the front of the building, the entire roof probably would have blown off,” Cox said.
Cox leases the building, and a recent change of ownership has complicated the repair process, he explained.
