Twenty-eight years after she started working at the Wendy’s restaurant on North Main Street as a 16-year-old, Selecia McMillian is back, this time as the store manager and now with a nearly brand-new facility to run.

McMillian and a crew of other Wendy’s employees were joined by corporate representatives from their new franchise owner, along with city officials and not just one, but two, mascots for a celebration of the restaurant’s re-opening on Wednesday.

The restaurant had been closed since the Nansemond River flooded the Kimberly area during Hurricane Matthew’s passage.

According to Tracy Commons, regional vice president of operations for the Delight Restaurant Group, the building had 18 inches of water inside during the height of the flooding, which resulted in damages that required “a total gut of the inside” before it could be opened for business again.

After about $150,000 worth of renovations and repairs, the restaurant served its first post-Matthew guests on Dec. 3, McMillian said. Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting was an opportunity to share the good news with city officials and to celebrate a little with customers, as well.

McMillian, who has worked at the Chesapeake Square Wendy’s for several years, said she was excited to be working five minutes from home again.

“I came back to open up my home store,” she said Wednesday.

The store was among several Kimberly-area businesses that were forced to make repairs after Hurricane Matthew dumped historic amounts of rainfall — 11 inches or more in some places — on Suffolk.

This was the second time the 30-year-old building had floodwaters come inside, Commons said.

During the course of the renovations, the restaurant, along with 29 others Wendy’s locations in Hampton Roads, was franchised to Delight by the Wendy’s Co.

The North Main Street location has about 40 employees, Commons said.