On Monday, the Wendy's restaurant in Marion reopened for business after being shut down for five months due to the flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.
On Sept. 27, the hurricane caused water from the Catawba River to rise and flood the McDowell Square shopping center. Around 6 to 7 feet of water got inside the Wendy's restaurant on U.S. Highway 70 West in Marion.
The Wendy's in Marion location is owned by Tar Heel Capital in Boone, which owns 89 Wendy's restaurants.
On Monday, Tad Dolbier, the CEO of Tar Heel Capital, was in Marion to witness the reopening of the Wendy's after months of cleaning and restoration efforts.
The restaurant reopened at 6:30 a.m. Monday. The outside of the building has not changed but the interior got an update, Dolbier said.
Management and staff are still waiting on some parts and pieces for the décor.
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"It's just a brighter, more open field," Dolbier said.
Where customers line up to order food has changed. "It has an entirely new kitchen layout," Dolbier said.
The kitchen has all new equipment.
"What we had was ruined and flooded, so we had to start from scratch," Dolbier said.
As for the employees, Dolbier said most of them continued to work with Tar Heel Capital at different Wendy's locations while the Marion location was closed.
The newly reopened Wendy's in Marion now has 35 employees. As before, it will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner from 6:30 a.m. to 1 a.m.
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