Local Business Badly Damaged By Heavy Rain

By Chris Cole,
Staff Writer

Since 2014, Sandra Wood has been the owner of Tiki Tans and Southern Grace Collection. Loyal patrons have come to her to get their skin looking good after long winters and she’s always been a business woman that people could trust.

Yet on Thursday, April 3, the heavy rains came and somehow got into her business leaving it damaged to the point where it could be weeks or months before it’s able to re-open.

Julia May, best friend and “sister” to Sandra Wood, spoke on her behalf due to the amount of shock she was in.

“This morning whenever we went to open up the doors,” she said when asked about the discovery of the damage that had been done. “We won’t know (the extent of the damage) until we can actually get in there.”

What is known is that the bulbs in the tanning beds will have to be replaced. May said that Wood had recently got new bulbs but they “came through the ceiling” as “they were up in the attic.” It’s not yet known if the beds themselves can be salvaged and reused or if new tanning beds will be needed.

The computers, boutique items and decorations that Wood had may also have to be replaced.

May then said, “The owner was fixin’ up the building, she was putting a new roof on and we don’t know how the water got inside the building. So I guess what happened is that it leaked through the roof, got in the attic and there was so much clutter in the attic that it busted through the ceiling. The insulation and stuff is hangin’ out. We don’t know the extent of the damage of the (tanning) beds and stuff.”

May went on to say that they’d been in contact with their insurance and, while they’re hopeful that the insurance will work with them, “sometimes the insurance are more on their side.”

With the certain loss of income for at least the next few weeks, May and Amy Vogt, owner of the neighboring business Infinity Treasures, posted a “Go Fund Me” for Wood to help her out until insurance money can come in. At the time of this writing, there was $300 raised toward a $15,000 goal.

May began tearing up when talking about how many in the community have already started to show their support.

“I also want to thank a lot of Sandra’s customers while we were there. They was comin’ up telling her she was in their prayers and giving her hugs. That really means a lot.

The Citizen-Times also reached out to the property manager of the plaza where Tiki Tans and Southern Grace Collection is, Holly Wood, to get some updates on Sandra Wood’s business.

“We had just had a new roof put on…on Monday,” said Holly. “When we say recent we mean recent.”

When asked about how surprising it was that such a new roof could fail so quickly, Holly said it was “shocking” and “very surprising.”

“It’s something I would’ve never imagined or even thought of.”

She then added, “The company that installed the roof have been wonderful to work with. They’re trying to figure out why it leaked. They’re still trying to assess and see what was the cause.” Holly Wood then clarified that it was only the roof over Tiki Tans that had been replaced. Amy Vogt’s business, Infinity Treasures, had a tiny bit of damage but nothing in comparison to her business neighbor.

Holly said the roofing company is one she’s used before for different projects and that, since working with them, this is the first time she knew of where a roof they installed failed. She did mention however that this isn’t her first time dealing with a roof failure but explained that those other times it was due to heavy rains coming in while the work was being done.

Both Holly and the roofing company have had crews go into Tiki Tans and help cleanup some of the mess. “This is her busy season and we’re trying to get her opened back up as soon as possible.”

With some of the cleanup done, Holly said she’s a little more optimistic about the timeline of when that could be.

“So when you first walk into a situation like that, it seems worse than it is. After us evaluating yesterday and today, I think we can, if nothing changes, I think we can do better than that time frame.”

Holly also wanted to clarify that the front room of Tiki Tans suffered most of its damage due to sheet rock falling down.

Holly has also helped Sandra Wood get everything over to her insurance to hopefully get the process moving along a little bit faster.

Both Julia May and Holly Wood ended their interviews by saying there’s nothing quite like a small community such as Scottsville where neighbors are quick to help neighbors in times of need.

If our readers wish to donate to the Go Fund Me set up on behalf of Sandra Wood, go to www.gofundme.com and type in “Tiki Tans” in the search bar. It’s listed under “Help Tiki Tans Recover From Total Loss.”