Firework sales impacted by floods, local vendors say

NORTH SIOUX CITY, South Dakota (KCAU) – Despite the recent disaster in North Sioux City, Lantis Fireworks expects their sales to skyrocket during the Fourth of July evening.

“Tonight you won’t be able to walk in here hopefully anyway,” said Lantis Fireworks owner Don Lantis.

North Sioux City’s Lantis Fireworks was protected from the Big Sioux floods, but the berm couldn’t stop the hit their sales took this season.

“That’s the reason why we didn’t get any water here,” said Lantis. “They put the dike across so we were protected but they said exit four is closed. And so people, you know, didn’t come down this way because they knew McCook Lake was closed. But we were never closed.”

Now that folks can get to Lantis, people are stocking up on their sparklers, but right across the interstate, McCook Lake will most likely be skipping the festivities this Independence Day.

“McCook Lake, they can’t even shoot fireworks now,” said Lantis. “I think that’s kind of foolish in a way because they have enough problems right now if they want to go shoot fireworks, what does it hurt?”

Five miles up the road in Jefferson, Boom Barn has seen impact from the floods in both South Dakota and Iowa.

“Last week, we had to close for a day just because of interstate closure and the flood of the Big Sioux,” said Boom Barn director of marketing and sales John Carlisle. “We also have another stand down in Crescent, Iowa, that’s being affected by the Missouri River floods.”

In nine years of operation, Boom Barn says this has been their slowest season yet.

“Sales were down quite a bit so far throughout the season,” said Carlisle. “We’re hoping with the late day in the week, Fourth of July, we have the chance to make up for that with Friday and Saturday still being part of the holiday weekend.”

Despite the slower sales, Boom Barn wishes everyone can have a Happy Independence Day.

“We’re taking an impact, but it’s just sales,” said Carlisle. “There’s a lot of people out there that have lost a lot more. We’re just glad that the majority of people are safe and hopefully we can continue to have a happy Fourth of July.”

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