DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Davenport businesses are bracing for a third crest of the Mississippi River that could again shut down their stores. The owner of Q.Q. Beauty Supply in Davenport said she's been fighting the flood for almost two months.
News 8 visited with her in early April when she and her family were sandbagging their warehouse entrance and moving boxes of products on decks built of pallets.
She called the flood then, "the first flood."
“We lost of a lot inventory and sales in the first flood," she said. "So we have to do something to push our business back up."
She placed a big order to make up for the losses. Le said this was her third year in this location on River Drive. The first couple of years, she build out the showroom with hundreds of beauty products, ranging from nail polish to beauty spa furniture.
Customers responded, others ordered online from other states in the Midwest.
She felt confident this year was going to be big, and May was peak season, she said.
She never expected floodwaters would be climbing the stairs to her showroom that last day of April.
Since then, she's been trying to bounce back as fast as she can. Her sister helps out in the store, her brother redid the drywalls. She has been checking and sorting through each product to see what can be salvaged.
"We do both at the same time, clean up and sell, clean up and sell," she said. In between, it was calling customers to tell them Q.Q. Beauty Supply was back in business.
The store has lost a month in sales, she said. The possibility of a third flood is making her anxious.
"We've been, for about one month, cleaning up, getting ready, repairing," she said. "It's so stressful thinking about the flood, it makes me lose sleep."
In the warehouse, towers of boxes that had been stacked high were strewn across the floor, having succumbed to floodwaters.
The Mississippi has has taught her a big lesson.
"Stay positive and stay tough," she said.
