SALISBURY, N.C. — Delhaize America here said Friday that it has reopened a Food Lion store in Avon, N.C., after closing it twice in the past week — once due to evacuation for Hurricane Irene and again after its generator was struck by lightening.
The company said it would continue to stock the store via ferry, after the storm washed out Highway 12, which had provided access to the island.
All but two Food Lions have reopened, the company said. In addition, Food Lion said it was making a $6,000 donation to the American Red Cross and "has contributed more than $100,000 for in-kind donations to communities and disaster-relief agencies, and continues to respond to Hurricane Irene recovery efforts by contributing bottled water, food, ice and other items."
Also, a Hannaford Bros. store in Bennington, Vt., reopened earlier this week after an around-the-clock effort to clean and restock in the wake of severe flooding. That was the only Hannaford store that had remained shuttered earlier in the week, despite widespread flooding and washouts in the chain’s operating areas in New England.
“It was an incredible, incredible accomplishment to get that store reopened in basically two days,” Mike Norton, a spokesman for the Delhaize-owned chain, told SN.
He said the company had to engineer some creative re-routing of delivery trucks due to flooding and road damage in Vermont and upstate New York.
