Swamp Daddy’s Cajun Kitchen owner Del’Inkka Beaudion said she’s tired of being strong and pushing through all the obstacles thrown at their restaurant, after it suffered it’s third major incident in the last two years this week with a chemical leak that started Tuesday.

The southern-style restaurant in Downtown Sioux Falls is closed until further notice, after an HVAC company accidentally hit a pipe while rearranging the furnace area in the condo upstairs.

The leak meant they weren’t able to take part in the last two days of the 11th annual Downtown Sioux Falls Burger Battle, where downtown restaurants create unique burgers not on their regular menu and serve it through the month of January. DTSF picks a winner at the end based on who gets the most votes. Swamp Daddy’s had been going strong throughout the battle and were listed in the Top 5 until last week, but the leak grinded them to a halt.

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“It was a sight to see green liquid stuff just coming from the ceiling,” Beaudion said. “It legit was like a scene from a movie. This green stuff was coming, and we were slipping in it.”

Two days after this leak first started, construction workers were walking all around the restaurant, which was now covered in white sheets and tarp. The dining and kitchen area, the place where the leak first started, had all the tables and chairs pushed to one side. A bucket was placed underneath a part of the ceiling still leaking, and a cloth-like substance was on the pipe to absorb as much of the leaking glycol as it can.

Beaudion said the leak was first discovered by her team when they showed up for work at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and saw the green liquid coming from the pipes. She said there was a lot of shock and confusion as her team called her, with the main concern being where it was coming from and hoping that it wasn’t something they had accidentally caused.

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Her husband Julian Beaudion rushed over, closely followed by Beaudion herself, and found out that the condo upstairs had leaked 800 gallons of glycol. The chemical had completely flooded the floor of the condo, seeping through and leaking through the cracks, crevices and pipes into the restaurant below.

Even though some employees did get the glycol on their hands, clothes and hair, aside from a “tingling” and “itching sensation,” there were no other major medical consequences of contact with the chemical. They said there was no evidence of the chemical having affected the air quality.

Beaudion said she wasn’t sure how she would break the news of the damage to the rest of her employees yet again, with this being the third major damage to their structure in the last two years. The restaurant saw a fire last year in May and a major flooding incident in December 2022. The flood took them only about two weeks to repair, but the fire took them about three weeks to rebuild, they said.

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But this time, it would take much longer.

Beaudion said the construction workers working in the restaurant were hired by the HVAC company that is working on the condo upstairs as well. They said it could take about eight to 10 weeks for the condo upstairs to be repaired. And while they don’t have a specific timeframe, Beaudion assumes their repairs would take around the same time or longer.

“I’m almost numb to it,” Beaudion said. “I make jokes and I laugh to be able to get myself through the situation because in the past, in less than a year and a half, we’ve had these three things happen to us.”

Since this is the third major damage to their property, Beaudion said she wanted to do things differently this time around. Last time, there was little support for employees for whom this was the main or only source of income and she wanted to make sure they had that this time.

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“Going through the previous times where we were closed, (I remember) how long it took for insurance to kick in and how long they had to wait,” Beaudion said. “So, I told them this time, we’re going to make sure that you guys are taken care of.”

Beaudion and her husband are in talks with numerous restaurants in the area who are willing to take in some of their employees till Swamp Daddy’s back on track. She mentioned ow helpful other downtown places, like Bread & Circus Sandwich Kitchen, Papa Woody’s, The Barrel House, CRAVE, Tinner’s Public House, Chef Ellen have been.

She said how grateful she was when Bread & Circus offered to have Swamp Daddy’s sell their Battle burger in their restaurant for the last two days. Bread & Circus Owner Barry Putzke said it’s already difficult enough to run a business, especially in downtown in the winter, so they tried to help in any way they could.

“Just being in the same business and same neighborhood, you know, we share the same struggles,” Putzke said. “I immediately felt so bad (and) just had a thought that we’re a block away and we’re all trying to finish burger battle strong. So, if there was a way that we could bring their ingredients and staff over, we could maybe just run the burgers (and) cut off the rest of the menu.”

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Unfortunately, a lot of the supplies in the restaurant, aside from the stuff in the freezer, were covered in the chemical. And, with only two days being left in the battle, there was not enough time to reorder supplies and make it work, she said.

“We’ve been receiving an outpouring amount of support from the community, customers and other business owners, and I’m so thankful for that,” she said. “That’s one of the things that we love about Sioux Falls is how people show up in support in a time of need.”

Beaudion shared how this was especially disheartening since Wednesday was the first day of Black History Month and this damage means they cannot fully participate and do justice to what it means to them as a Black-owned business.

Beaudion and her husband said while this is a difficult time, they believe it is important to set an example for their three daughters with their handling of this situation. Having started out as a food truck in 2017 and transitioned to a restaurant in 2019 with the support of her mother-in-law from the beginning, their strength is what is getting them through this unfortunate time as well.

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“I just want to be able to have a successful business like everybody else and excel and not have to keep showing how strong I am,” Beaudion said. “But we can’t just sit here and mope in the negativity. I take every ‘opportunity’ as a lesson to see how I can take things and maybe refocus, redirect, rebuild and come back stronger.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Swamp Daddy’s in Sioux Falls witnesses 3rd disaster in 2 years