Rao's Bakery could reopen before Thanksgiving after the eatery took on several feet of floodwater in August, owner Josh Tortorice said. The Beaumont-based bakery opened a shop at 6915 Cypresswood Drive in Spring in 2006, but August was the first time the location flooded despite many heavy storms over the years, Tortorice said. An employee checked on the store Aug. 27 and found 4-5 inches of water in the building, but on Aug. 29, it had more than 2 feet of water inside, he said. "The way the store is built, it’s up high and Cypresswood [Drive] is on one side and Cypress Creek on the other side, wedged in between two rivers—Cypresswood becomes a river whenever we flood." Employees and friends of the store cleaned up the debris for a week after the water receded and a contractor immediately got to work on renovations, Tortorice said. The store did not have flood insurance, he said. "We lost a lot of material, equipment, showcases ... it was a devastating flood for us." The shop is also missing one of its iconic "Blues Brothers" statues. Two statues, depicting Dan Akroyd's and John Belushi's characters from the 1980 film, have been a fixture in the restaurant's outdoor seating area since it opened. The figures survived the flood, but "Elwood" (Akroyd's character) went missing last week. "I don’t know how to replace it, I'm hoping we can get the word out," Tortorice said. The owner said he hopes the unique item is restored to the bakery once the public learns it has been stolen. The store may be ready to open by mid-November, he said. Tortorice said the bakery has no plans to relocate out of fear of future flooding. "We love the area," he said. "We don’t feel as though it’s a consistent flooding threat; we feel like this was once-in-a-lifetime type flood and we’ll definitely get a flood insurance policy moving forward." The bakery posts regular updates on its progress on its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/raosspring.