An explosion on Main Street

This morning (less than 2 hours ago), one of the restaurants downtown blew up. As in BLEW UP. The restaurant was called Boodles and I've heard it was a very nice restaurant, though we'd never been there. Chances are, though, that if you've ever visited us here in Bozeman, we've taken you to The Pickle Barrel, which is a long standing favorite. It was right next door to Boodles. Here's what the scene looks like this morning:



The Pickle Barrel (and the Rockin' R bar) is the green building on the left edge of the picture. To see a comparison shot of what it looked like before, click here. While this is definitely devastating for Boodles, there are a lot of area businesses that have some sort of damage from the blast. That means a number of them will probably have to shut down for repairs, and even if insurance covers the bulk or all of the repair costs, that is still lost income for businesses that may be struggling in this economy anyway. I'm curious how they will all come out of this.

UPDATE: There are actually 3 storefronts that are completely gone in this picture. The first is Boodles, the next is Montana Trails Gallery, and the third is Lilly Lu. Lilly Lu is owned by a friend and faithful attendee of my scrapbooking classes, Sheryl. Another friend and scrapbook class attendee was also employed there, Lisa. My heart goes out to them as I consider the challenges this will bring them!