Take one look at Summer Ville Homemade Ice Cream in Somerville today and it’s hard to imagine that one year ago, 3 to 4 feet of flood water from the remnants of Hurricane Ida filled the nautical-themed ice cream shop, ruining “every single thing,” said owner Elio DeFranco.

That’s because after the $215,000 rebuild, $170,000 of which was recouped by insurance, it looks “almost identical,” he said; minus a misplaced mounted plastic marlin or two.

“I even put most of the decorations back in the same spots, except for a few because I forgot where they were,” DeFranco said.

You can’t blame him for forgetting. He was finally able to reopen the shop in late March, nearly seven months after Ida ravaged it. Half of the sheetrock was destroyed. The waterproof freezers began floating and then flipped over, breaking and spilling their ice cream contents onto the floor.

"There was so much ice cream on the floor it was unbelievable," DeFranco said.

The situation was just as dire elsewhere in Somerville. The usually placid brook that runs through the heart of the county seat became a raging torrent. Cars in the Brookside Gardens apartment complex were carried away in the flash flood. Some of the cars were still in the middle of Mercer Street the next day. One car had flipped on its roof, another almost slid into the brook and was stuck on the bank, and another ended up on top of another car.

It took two weeks just to get all the ice cream off the floor at Summer Ville Homemade Ice Cream. The shop had to be aired out for two weeks, then, its floors, sheetrock and electric and plumbing systems had to be redone. All equipment had to be replaced, some that DeFranco rebuilt himself when certain items weren’t available due to supply chain issues.

Since the reopening – which DeFranco said felt “fantastic” – it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, either. Supplies and ingredients are up at least 50% due to inflation, and the shop has seen a slowdown in business which DeFranco also attributes to the economy.

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Despite the loss of profit and the cost of rebuild, DeFranco doesn’t regret reopening.

“It was rough, but I knew I had to do it,” he said. “I like keeping busy, I like the business and it’s fun, so it wouldn’t have mattered what it cost.”

Another ice cream shop across the county line in Hunterdon, which tied Somerset in having the most storm-related deaths of state counties with five, also fought to reopen its doors after immense Ida damage. Its opening, too, wasn’t easy.

Nearly two months after the storm, Owowcow Creamery in Lambertville opened again after “all hands on deck” completed the rebuild, said managing director Shira Tizer Wade. It cost $150,000 and only $15,000 was recouped from insurance. Floors were poured, walls were built, storage units were installed, and freezers were found while also battling supply chain obstacles. However, the reopening – just in time for Lambertville’s iconic Halloween celebration – was bittersweet.

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“The reopening was difficult because that part of Lambertville has still not completely recovered,” Wade said. “People just started moving back in in the last few months. It wasn’t an easy winter for us because no one wanted to come down to that part of Lambertville and I think it was because there were a lot of bad memories for people."

After Ida, Owowcow Creamery was filled with 6 feet of water, and its 1,000-pound ice cream case was “floating on top of the water like a boat,” recalled Wade. Everything, from the equipment to the t-shirts, was lost.

“Literally everything you could touch was gone,” Wade continued. Plus, the shop had to rebuild its floors and walls, as well as electric and HVAC systems.

Lambertville went from quaint to chaotic on Sept. 1 when 11 inches of rain fell there. The creeks that flow at both ends of the city swelled, causing the worst flash flooding in living memory.

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Owowcow Creamery used the rebuild as an opportunity to upgrade its Lambertville store by revamping lighting and installing updated countertops, walls and flooring with new color schemes and decor. It looked into other insurance options and created a plan to mitigate future flood damage by storing items higher and putting more items on wheels for easy transfer.

However, not all businesses ravaged by Ida – and there were many, especially in Central Jersey, which saw some of the greatest storm devastation in the state – found lifeboats.

Maria Mikiewicz, owner of European Deli in Manville, decided early this year to make the deli's closing after Ida permanent, ending a more than 30-year legacy of offering fresh kielbasa, 13 types of pierogi and other European specialties. Today, the former storefront remains vacant, as do many others in the borough.

In Manville, the Raritan River on the borough's northern border reached 27.66 feet. The Millstone River on the borough's eastern border reached another record: 23.73 feet. Walmart's parking lot on North Main Street was under 2 feet of water, and borough hall was also underwater.

It would have cost Mikiewicz about $100,000 out-of-pocket to rebuild after insurance recoup. The cost, time needed to rebuild and material shortages all factored into the decision not to reopen. It also would have marked the third major rebuild that Mikiewicz has had to do following storms, following Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

“It wasn’t an easy decision for the family, for any of us,” said Jan Chwiedosiuk, Mikiewicz’s nephew and co-owner of Jersey Cyclone Brewing Company. “Much of my life, including my childhood, was spent there with my family.”

Three feet of water filled the deli. Fifty percent of its products were either destroyed or had to be thrown out, partly because most of the refrigeration was destroyed and all the air conditioning no longer worked. Most of the cabinetry and wall fixtures were gone. All the sheetrock below the water line would have had to be replaced.

Sherban's Diner, a 63-year-old cornerstone of South Plainfield, was able to reopen a few weeks after 2 feet of water from Ida destroyed its $50,000 boiler and caused an additional $10,000 worth of damage to its 120-person private event room.

Much of Middlesex County was spared from the worst of Ida, however, some areas – such as parts of South Plainfield – bore the brunt of the storm's wrath. Nine inches of rain fell on the borough, which is home to Spring Lake and Bound Brook, the latter of which neighbors Sherban's Diner.

Insurance covered nothing for Sherban's Diner because it does not have flood insurance.

“Our boiler takes care of the steam table, so you can’t have hot food without it, meaning it’s not something where you can say, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll fix it next month,” said Kateina Ganiaris, co-owner of the family-owned business. “Flood insurance is very expensive so for right now, I have to wait and see if business comes up and if I can afford it, I will get it.”

Things haven’t been easy for the family since COVID-19 struck. When they reopened six months after the pandemic, business was down 50%. Now, with inflation, lingering pandemic concerns and a loss of corporate clientele, it's down 30%, but they hope to afford flood insurance for the diner as soon as possible.

“Of course it worries me that this kind of storm damage will happen again,” said Ganiaris. “In five years, I’ll definitely have some kind of flood insurance because I think a storm like this is coming again. I just don’t know when.”

Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA Today Network New Jersey since 2014, after becoming a blogger-turned-reporter following the creation of her award-winning travel blog. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Contact: JIntersimone@Gannett.com or @JIntersimone.