Delaware business flood recovery

Seaford-area businesses returning to normal
For many, flood cleanup continues
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060630/BUSINESS/606300334/1003

By DWAYNE STEWARD
The News Journal
06/30/2006

Floodwaters from the Nanticoke River
threatened the Lifecare at Lofland health care
facility Sunday after storms dumped several
inches of rain in the Seaford area.

In Seaford, business is slowly returning to normal.

The scope of flood-related destruction that took place this week is scattered. But businesses along the U.S. 13 corridor near the Wal-Mart shopping center were hit particularly hard.

Some businesses, such as Grotto Pizza, didn't experience any interior damage, yet resorted to pulling customers from the flooded parking lot into the restaurant on inflatable rafts.

Others fared worse. Dari Adrion, manager of Shoe Show, was speechless about the destruction at her small shoe store.

"We had a foot of standing water inside the store," Adrion said. "I can't even begin to guesstimate as to how much damage we've had. We have 10 tables covered with damaged shoes and Wal-Mart carts filled with them."

Adrion said the shoe store has been cleaning all week. But like most businesses in the area, her store was closed on Sunday and Monday when nine inches of rain fell.

"The phone service just came back today," she said. "We'll hopefully be fully back to normal by early next week. We don't have flood insurance. I don't know what the company's going to do."
Friedman's Jewelers and Advance Auto Parts also saw a great deal of damage. Both stores are closed while cleanup crews renovate the building.

Advance Auto Parts has dried out and plans to reopen as soon as possible, said spokeswoman Laurie Stacy. Friedman's plans to reopen by Thursday at the latest. Managers at the branch could not be reached because the phone lines had not been restored.

Many are considering themselves lucky. Shari Cannon, owner of Ledo Pizza and Pasta said they only had to mop the lobby area after the flood because large trucks pushed water up onto the sidewalk.

"The only problems we had were with delivery trucks that couldn't get here until today because of the closed roads," Cannon said.

Dollar Tree lost several thousand dollars' worth of products, but manager Joel Walla,said the store fared much better than its neighbors.

"We were hit pretty hard, but Advance Auto Parts was definitely the worst," Walla said. "We had standing water for about 24 hours and had to shut down the store on Sunday."

Upon opening Monday, Walla said, business was extremely slow because Wal-Mart had closed its parking lot.

"We lost 50 percent of our business at the onset, but we're almost back to normal now," he said.
Some companies weren't affected directly by the flooding but their business has been difficult or decreased dramatically.

"We had a lot of trouble getting into Seaford so we could fix our power lines," said Matt Likovich, Delmarva Power spokesman. "We had to wait for clearance from the county's Office of Emergency Management."

Delmarva sent out about a dozen employees because power had been disrupted for 250 customers in Seaford. Power was out for many from noon Sunday to 9:15 p.m. Monday Likovich said.

Richard Williams, owner of R&L Irrigation, said he went out into the community and pumped residents' basements for free Monday.

"A lot of our clients don't have insurance, so when something like this happens they have no way of recovering," he said. "There were three of us who went and did mostly volunteer work."

Kaye Construction on Coverdale Road has lost a significant amount of business because of flooding at the nearby Lowe's that is under construction. Kaye supplies fill for the construction job.

"We haven't had too many deliveries because it takes a while for dirt to dry and we have trucks that are 730,000 pounds that we know would get stuck," said Barbara Wier, a Kaye Construction secretary.

Wier said Kaye has practically shut down and she doesn't think things will return to normal for at least a month. The owners are having trouble finding work for their 29 employees.

"Luckily, there's a development that we're building that didn't get too much water," she said.

Ed Weingartner, CEO of Dynamic Restoration, a full-service catastrophic response company in West Chester, Pa., said the most important thing for businesses to do right after a flood is to dry the water as quickly as possible.

"Floodwater ... brings a lot of bacterial issues, so it's important to move as quickly as you can toward restoration," he said. "You want to get the drying done within 48 to 72 hours."