Downtown businesses still recovering from Bloomington flooding last weekend

Herald-Times (Bloomington, IN)

Jun. 27—A week after a series of thunderstorms dropped 4 to 6 inches of rain across the Bloomington area, downtown businesses that were inundated by flooding are still working to clean up.

The waters rose in Hopscotch Coffee Roastery and Bloomingfoods Near West along North Madison Avenue.

Phil Phillipy, general manager at Bloomingfoods, got a phone call from the night baker at the Near West store on Friday, June 18, letting him know there was water rushing into the store's basement. He rushed to the store at 316 W. Sixth St., to find 10 to 12 inches of water in the basement and 6 to 8 inches in the administrative offices.

"We had a lot of issues," Phillipy said Friday morning, nearly a week after the flooding. "All the water was out by 2 a.m."

Fans, a larger air mover, a shop vac and dehumidifiers were put into place to help dry out the areas affected. On Monday morning, a service that specializes in floods and mold mitigation began working to help clean up the basement and office areas.

"They came in and drilled test holes in the drywall," Phillipy said. The carpet in the conference room was pulled up and everything was sanitized. "We lost electronic equipment and computers on the floor. But we were able to do business."

The actual grocery store portion of the store wasn't affected by the flood, Phillipy said, adding that this flash flood was worse than the one in 2008.

"That block from Sixth to Seventh on Madison, it floods and the storm drains can't keep up," he said. "I went out to make sure the storm drain was clear, and it was clear. That water was up to my waist," he said, estimating it was 36 inches deep.

Jeff Grant, owner of Hopscotch Coffee Roastery, got a call early Saturday morning from Phillipy, who was battling the flood waters next door at Bloomingfoods.

Grant got to the coffee shop at 2 a.m. Saturday and said the flood waters had already rushed out, but it was obvious there had been between 18 inches and 2 feet of water inside.

"That's where we stored all the coffee, in 150-pound bags," Grant said. "All that stuff was submerged and was ruined. ... Everything was in there. Stuff that we keep in the back of the store we found in the front of the store. It was very surreal."

A refrigerator and other equipment was ruined. A large chest freeze was completely flipped over. Grant is hopeful the coffee roaster will dry out and be usable. But for now, Hopscotch is reaching out to coffee roasters in Louisville to purchase coffee.

"We had about five or six days of coffee already roasted," Grant said.

Everything at the Dodds Street coffee shop is fine, he said. But he isn't certain when the Madison Street shop will reopen.

"We're at a lower level there," he said of the 212 N. Madison St. shop. "There's not great storm drainage down there," he noted, adding that he has filed reports with the city in the past and "nothing has been done."

Grant said they hired Service Master, who set up dehumidifiers and fans for a couple of days. Now he's trying to determine if they need to remove drywall to stop any mold from forming.

"We're still assessing," he said, adding he hopes the Madison Street shop won't be closed more than a couple of weeks. "But I have no idea."

Grant said anyone who wants to donate to Hopscotch to help with the cleanup and lost revenue can do so on the shop's website. He's also grateful for the help fellow coffee roasters and other people have already given.

On the other side of the downtown area, some businesses were completely flooded while others remained dry. Bob Costello, owner of both Soma Kirkwood coffeehouse and Village Deli, said even though Soma is in a basement, it was dry while Village Deli had more than 6 feet of water in the basement.

"I'm a little baffled," Costello said Friday afternoon, taking a break from working at the deli. "The church across the street (from Soma) had a bunch of damage. And the Village Deli did flood."

When Costello arrived early Saturday morning, the walk-in cooler out back of the deli at 409 E. Kirkwood Ave. was no longer attached to the building. He believes the flood waters ripped it away, allowing water to pour into the building and find its way to the basement.

"We have a sump pump down there but it couldn't keep up with the volume of water," Costello said.

When rental stores opened Saturday morning, Costello had people picking up pumps and a pool company brought them two more pumps. By 2:30 p.m. Saturday, all the water had been pumped into city storm drains.

That allowed Costello and other workers to begin taking out all the computers, telephone system, air handlers, furnaces, water heaters, washers, dryers and other equipment that was destroyed.

"The office was completely destroyed," Costello said. "Everything has been removed from the basement and now we are rebuilding.

"The dining room had about 1 to 2 inches of water," he said. "We removed all the wet drywall. We evacuated all the water and dried it all out."

Now they are replacing drywall, painting, installing new ductwork and new carpeting, all of which is expensive, especially because Costello didn't have any flood insurance. "We do have flood insurance now," he said. "It will take effect in 30 days. We purchased it the next day.

To add to the troubles Village Deli has faced in the past week, Duke Energy shut down power along Kirkwood Avenue on Sunday night, when a transformer blew. That left the walk-in cooler without power — all the food was lost.

Even with all the devastation, Costello spoke positively about the "Kirkwood community," which he said has been so helpful to one another, moving equipment to neighboring stores and helping with cleanup efforts.

"It was just such a great community spirit the next day," he said. "It's what you have to love about Bloomington."

The waters that flooded the deli's basement were flowing like a river through some nearby businesses along East Kirkwood. This happened at both Nick's English Hut and nearby Osteria Rago, according to Ian Fletcher, general manager and head chef of the Italian restaurant.

On Friday night and early Saturday, there was 4 to 5 inches of water over the entire floor of the dining area of Osteria Rago, Fletcher said. Fortunately, the main kitchen area remained dry.

Fletcher arrived around 12:30 a.m. Saturday and was there working for four hours "pushing water out the front door."

Employees came in Saturday morning and a major cleanup effort began, with anything from the baseboards down having to be cleaned and sanitized. "We were cleaning for about 10 hours or so," Fletcher said. By 4 p.m. Osteria Rago was able to open.

"We were pretty lucky with that," Fletcher said, adding that the restaurant keeps most food items and computer equipment at least 6 to 12 inches off the floor.

Some problems associated with the flooding continued into Saturday night and Sunday that weekend when the transform outside the restaurant caught fire.

Both Nick's and Osteria Rago lost the recycling and trash bins that were out back in the alley. Co-owner Susan Bright said she thinks she may have seen one of the restaurants' blue bins when she was riding her bicycle south near Switchyard Park. She credits the slab flooring in the restaurant in Osteria Rago with helping keep the flood waters from doing more damage.

Nearby Cafe Pizzaria also had some flooding but after a thorough cleaning on Friday night and early Saturday, the pizza place was able to open on Saturday.

Across the street, the Monroe County Public Library had some flooding along Grant Street, according to manager Josh Wolf. Quick response by Wolf and others kept the flood waters from spreading farther inside. At the height of the flooding, Wolf said there was a couple feet of water outside the library's Grant Street entrance with some water making its way into the basement areas. but no books were affected.

Wolf said the Ellettsville branch had worse problems due to the flash flood, with a power outage causing the lights to go off and the internal fire door to fall.

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