CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - The marquee out front says it all: "God Bless You Neighbors and Good Luck." Putting up the letters was the first thing Larry Welp did after floodwaters finally receded enough to let him return to his grocery, Jim's Foods. | Updated photo gallery | Interactive map

The 60-year-old wanted to buck up the neighborhood, even as it sank in that his life's work was gutted. The windows were broken out. The food, the beer, even the cigarettes were sopping wet and worthless.

The store had a wicked stench, a mix of sewage and spoiled food.

"I just had to do it," Welp said of the marquee while sitting on a cooler outside his store. "A lot of our neighbors have come here and told us they won't come back if we don't. So I wanted them to know we'd be coming back."

Some times a store is just a store. But this was never the case with Jim's Foods, a modestly sized grocery on Cedar Rapids' southwest side.

Welp bought it about 30 years ago from its original owner, whose son's name was Jim. It wasn't much then, and it has expanded slowly over the years, but it has always been a part of the neighborhood fabric.

"It is THE landmark in the neighborhood," said Dave Tallett, who runs a laundry nearby. "I remember a few years ago Hy-Vee went in up the road with the idea that maybe they would take some of his customers. It hasn't.

"It's just not a normal store. Not the way Larry and Linda run it."

The couple have embraced their role in the neighborhood and they know their customers, a dedicated bunch who typically live within 20 blocks or so of the store.

"We had the essentials. You could survive off this store," Linda Welp said. "I mean, you might not always want to. You might want a steak once awhile, but you really could."

Her husband offered an addendum: "We used to have steak, too. Used to have a meat cutter, but he died, and we hadn't found a good one to replace him."

Welp was working at the store, balancing the books, the day the flooding began. He'd been watching the flood projections but never imagined the water would rise high enough to reach his business.

He has no flood insurance - "No one in this neighborhood did," he said.

By the time he realized the store was endangered, it was too late to save much. He threw cigarettes into plastic tubs and stacked them with beer on high shelves, but not high enough.

"I figured if somebody survived the flood the smokes are the first thing they'd be looking for," he said.

As he spoke, Welp's voice contained only a hint of wistfulness. He broke down, though, when he talked about his neighbors. Two of them came by earlier this week, the first day they were allowed back in the neighborhood. They had their dogs with them, he said.

"They each grabbed a dog when the waters were coming," he said, stifling a sob. "They couldn't find their cat and they couldn't stick around. They found him in the basement the other day. It drowned."

He apologized for crying.

"Like I said, they're not just our customers," he said.

The Welps were about a year from paying off the store's mortgage and retiring. They thought about selling the business and three adjacent buildings, then doing some traveling.

"When you own your own place, you don't get to do too much of that," Welp said.

The flood changed their plans.

They're going to come back, but they don't know how. They'll look into help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and consider low-interest small business loans.

Somehow they'll open again, Welp said.

"It was going to be a nice soft retirement. We were going to ease out," he said, chuckling. "Not going to be easy now. But I am sure we will rebuild. Don't know how. But this neighborhood needs it, so we'll do it."