Just six months ago, John's Pass felt the wrath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Storm surge took away docks, and 4 to 5 feet of water rushed into this treasured shopping area. The Spice and Tea Exchange suffered a lot of damage.
Lisa and Brian Coleman have been on the Pass for almost 18 years. Today, they're still recovering from the hurricanes.
Four and a half feet of water meant they had to gut their entire business, losing thousands of dollars in product.
Today, they are working to rebuild and are expected to be fully open very soon.
In the meantime, they've been operating out of a tent in front of their building to help generate revenue.
"But we've really been doing our very best to bring out our absolute best sellers for spices, teas, accessories. Let people know. You know, we're not going anywhere. We're here to stay, and we're going to be back bigger and better than ever," said Rob Colwell, general manager of the Spice & Tea Exchange of John's Pass.
For some businesses, the hurricanes meant leaving for higher ground. That wasn't the case for the Colemans.
"Number one priority was staying in John's Pass, 100%. We wanted to stay in our building, but we didn't know it was going to be possible, so that was a little scary, and so we did kind of look around in John's Pass, but we just decided to stay put once our building was okay to also proceed. We knew we made the right decision, and we were very happy," said Lisa Coleman, owner of the Spice & Tea Exchange of John's Pass.
The Spice and Tea Exchange at John's Pass, known for selling spices and teas, is also the first franchise of the company.
They hope to be fully open in the next few weeks.
