Among the many challenges that will make cleaning up from the historic flood so difficult is that many of the businesses that provide rebuilding services and supplies are, themselves, flood victims.
The industrial corridor in north Baton Rouge along Monterrey Boulevard and Mammoth Avenue, for instance, is home to dozens of local companies that include electrical contractors, flooring and carpet dealers, and valve and plumbing repair servicers. Their establishments all took on anywhere from a few inches to a couple of feet of water last weekend, when the flooding began.
By Wednesday afternoon, almost all of the offices and warehouses had been gutted, piles of ruined equipment and electronics topping ripped out flooring, insulation and drywall. In the midst of it all, skeleton crews were fielding calls from anxious customers in need of their services.
“A lot of our apartment building (customers) have already called so we started sending crews out Tuesday,” says Bill Lowery, vice president of operations at Cornerstone Commercial Flooring. “A lot of people are going to need apartments so we’re trying to get them repaired as quickly as possible.”
While some of Cornerstone’s employees were dispatched to installation jobs, others were helping with the cleanup at the office. It’s a juggling act that will be going on for a while. Lowery estimates damage to the company’s office equipment and property will exceed $200,000, though only about $70,000 worth of inventory was ruined.
“We’re fortunate we keep a lot of our flooring elevated on pallet racks, so we didn’t lose it,” he says. “So as soon as we can get our computers up and running again, we’ll be in better shape to respond to customers’ calls.”
Rebel Electric in Central has also been fielding calls from its needy customers while also figuring out how to deal with the seven feet of water that flooded its Joor Road offices.
Owner Craig Simoneaux estimates he had already received nearly 50 calls for service by Wednesday evening. He says he’d like to start working but everything in his office was ruined, as was about 90% of equipment in his warehouse.
“We’re hoping to be back at work Monday, at least doing some limited jobs,” he says. “But we don’t even have a computer yet. We have to get back online before we can do anything.”
—Stephanie Riegel
