Local Savannah business recovers from Hurricane Helene weeks after storm made landfall

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – It’s been three weeks since Hurricane Helene made landfall, and many people are still recovering. Not only were thousands of homes damaged, but many businesses as well, including Port City Sewing Factory in Savannah.

During the storm, parts of the factory’s roof were ripped off, allowing rain and wind to enter the building.

“Everything was wet,” said Mahala Robyn, the co-owner of Port City Sewing Factory and the head of design and production at Satchel. The factory is the sister company of Satchel, which is a popular retail store on Liberty Street in downtown Savannah.

Port City is where staff store and produce most of Satchel’s products and when water came in, it destroyed some of their materials. “Some of it completely unusable,” said Robyn.

That’s when Robyn, along with co-owner of Port City Sewing Factory and founder of Satchel Elizabeth Seeger, decided to move to a temporary factory.

“Fortunately the space that we moved into was available to demo the interior,” said Robyn.

So, after tearing down a few walls and moving all their equipment to the new facility, they are now back in action for the first week since the storm. “I feel like it’s the first time that we’ve really had a chance to breathe,” said Seeger.

While they said being in a new space is a relief, it doesn’t mean there haven’t been major setbacks in production.

“Four weeks is optimistic and six to eight is more likely,” said Robyn. “Everything that has to be replaced generally takes a three to six week turnaround time.”

And all of these setbacks came at a time when Seeger and Robyn typically try to ramp up production in preparation for the holiday season. “We have a massive wholesale order that is due before Christmas and this is what a lot of this leather was for,” said Robine

However, despite the setbacks, Seeger said things could be much worse. “We are really grateful to have found a space, to have made an easy move, to everybody that showed up and offered to help in any way, shape, or form,” said Seeger.

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