Oct. 29—MITCHELL — Tom Patzer has seen it all over the past four decades while running his woodworking business.

From a devastating flood that destroyed his equipment and wreaked havoc on his facility, to a fire and a pandemic, Patzer has faced plenty of challenges that have tested his will to succeed as a local business owner. But every time a major obstacle is thrown his way, Patzer always finds a way to overcome them.

His ability to rise to the occasion in the face of adversity helped Patzer Woodworking reach a 40-year business milestone this year. Thursday was a time to celebrate that milestone at Patzer's new-look facility that was submerged in over a foot of water just three years ago.

"But we're still standing stronger than ever," Patzer said of the past three years of grappling with the flood recovery efforts and supply-chain battles created from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reflecting back on how far Patzer Woodworking has come since its foundation in 1981 when a small garage was the office and production facility, a big smile grows across Patzer's face.

As Patzer put it, embarking on the woodworking business venture was a "leap of faith." Friends doubted he'd be in business for more than a few years and banks were hesitant to provide the loan he needed to get rolling in the early 1980s.

"There were some friends of mine who said they would give me two years until I would be out of business. They knew it was hard running a woodworking business, but here I am, 40 years later, still humming," Patzer said. "I found a bank in Mitchell to give me a loan, and thought they are really putting a lot of faith in me. I'm sure glad they did, because it worked out."

What started out as a one-man woodworking business inside a 650-square-foot garage is now a company backed with more than 20 employees producing custom cabinetry and counter tops out of a 32,000-square-foot facility in central Mitchell.

"I'm blessed to have a wife who stood by me from the beginning," he said of his wife, Sherri Patzer.

After making a name for himself as a talented cabinetry and countertop craftsman, Patzer started welcoming large commercial jobs. Gaining Avera Health and Puetz Construction as customers was a proud moment for Patzer.

Watching the business succeed has provided plenty of fond memories for Patzer, but seeing his son, Ryan Patzer, and daughter, Amanda Neppl, join the team stands as "one the proudest moments" for the business' founder. Ryan and Neppl's decision to work for the company turned Patzer Woodworking into a family-owned business that now spans generations, something Tom has dreamed about since the beginning of his journey.

"I always assumed Ryan would come back here, but I never thought Amanda would. It was a blessing to have them both come back and make us a second-generation family business," Tom said.

Together, the brother-sister duo handle overseeing commercial projects, design work and client relations. The addition of Ryan and Neppl has translated to success, as the business has been expanding its footprint into neighboring states like Iowa, Wyoming and Minnesota.

Although Patzer lost his first building to a fire and dealt with a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic over the past two years, the 2019 flood that drenched the business in over a foot of water was without question, the family says, the hardest challenge the business has ever faced.

The Patzer family still vividly remembers the natural disaster. An annual work party was scheduled to take place at Patzer Woodworking's showroom on Sept. 12 that year, but Mother Nature had other plans.

Rather than walking into the showroom with plates of appetizers and treats waiting for the employees to celebrate another year of business, the Patzers couldn't even gain access to their building as the entire area was flooded with over a foot of standing water from the early morning downpour that brought 8 to 10 inches of rain.

"The water was higher than the windows on the building. We had computers floating. There was even a boat that someone had that floated by the building," Tom said of the images he recalls from the flood. "We lived through a partial showroom for three years."

Unlike the structure fire, insurance covered hardly any of the flood damage. It forced the family-owned business to pay for much of the damage repairs and equipment replacement out-of-pocket.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 40% of small and mid-sized businesses never reopen after a natural disaster inflicts major damage. Of the businesses that do reopen post natural disaster, 25% close within a year, FEMA's data says.

The Patzer family business has bucked the trend, as they are in their third year of operations since the 2019 flood.

"There were a lot of sleepless nights," Ryan said of the nights following the flood.

The flood left one of the most important pieces of equipment that's the heartbeat of Patzer Woodworking's production severely damaged. For three days following the flood, the wood-cutting machine was out of commission, bringing production to a grinding halt.

Despite technicians' estimates on the wood-cutter having a 40% survival rate once brought back to life, the production team managed to repair the machine when it faltered until the arrival of a new wood-cutter several months later. With damaged equipment and a gutted facility, the crew of wood crafts makers were moving products out the door to customers and mounting a comeback.

Neppl lauded the dedicated team's ability to improvise and meet the challenges post flood as keys to helping Patzer Woodworking emerge from the wreckage.

"Everyone of our employees touches the job. It really takes a team effort to make a business like this succeed this long," she said. "We couldn't have made it through the challenges without them."

As community members and business leaders gathered at the showroom on Thursday for the company's 40th anniversary, there were no traces that the room was submerged in over a foot of water just three years ago.

Throughout the handful of challenges that Patzer Woodworking faced over the years, Tom always instilled faith in overcoming the obstacles with a saying his family has heard frequently: "It will always work out."

"That's what he always says when we are worried about everything," Ryan said of his father. "And it has."