Flood aftermath: Pullman’s Tractor Town Square businesses still closed

May 18-- May 18--It has been more than a month since the devastating flood that turned North Grand Avenue into a raging river, but all the businesses in Pullman's Tractor Town Square building remain closed.

Things are looking up though, as most of the businesses are expected to reopen in the next few weeks, said Parley Pearce, Tractor Town Square owner.

Rollys will likely be the first to reopen. Pearce said the ice cream parlor could open its doors as early as next week.

He said he hopes Snap Fitness, which he recently purchased, will open in two weeks, and Kool Nail Designs and Spa might be three weeks out.

Pearce said he does not believe Carnahan Chiropractic will open again because the owner, like most or all of the tenants in the building, did not have flood insurance and his equipment was destroyed.

Most of the roughly eight businesses in the building experienced flooring, furniture and equipment damage.

Pearce said Snap Fitness probably got hit the hardest because of the many pieces of exercise equipment that sustained damage. Ideal Option, an addiction treatment center, had recently opened and brought in new desks, computers and other office equipment only to see the items destroyed.

"Some equipment has been saved," Pearce said. "But they were all hit pretty hard I would say."

Although the tenants are responsible for the damages inside their businesses, Pearce said he has provided financial aid to get the owners back on their feet.

He said the elevated section of Grand Avenue outside his building only heightened the flood impacts. He said his property sat higher than the street prior to the road project, but now it is lower, which caused the water flowing down Grand Avenue to spill onto his property and into his building.

Pearce said his insurance representative will bring the issue to the city, and if it does not respond, he might sue Pullman.

Pullman Deputy Public Works Director Clayton Forsmann said 1,350 lineal feet of North Grand Avenue was raised 2 or 3 feet almost a decade ago to help prevent water from spilling over the road. Besides widening and reconstructing the road, the project included 4,400 cubic yards of excavation along the Missouri Flat Creek channel -- the culprit of April's flood -- to increase the channel's capacity.

Forsmann said water entered the street last month well north of Tractor Town Square and flowed south, eventually flooding the building. Even if the road was not raised, he said he believes water would have rushed into the building.

Pearce said he hopes the city deepens the creek channel and installs levees where necessary to help prevent flooding in the area.

The Tractor Town Square building was not the only one affected by the flood. Other businesses along the Grand Avenue corridor, such as Kush21 on the corner of North Grand Avenue and Northeast Stadium Way, were also affected by floodwaters.

Gabriel Haulk, general manager of the marijuana shop, said water ascended to the building's basement, but Kush21's sales floor was unharmed.

Haulk said the business shut down early the day of the flood, and now he is looking to potentially demolish a former car wash structure next door and the two rooms connected to Kush21 to prevent future flooding issues. The structures are located above or adjacent to the creek.

While buildings sustained the most damage, the flood caused some stress to riverbanks and water life.

Jim Ekins, University of Idaho Extension water educator in Coeur d'Alene, said erosion of stream banks was likely the largest environmental impact from the flood.

"Fine sediments are very tough on fish," Ekins said. "They're bad for their gills, and it kind of smothers their eggs."

Drew Schuldt, Palouse Conservation District conservation coordinator, said while there were some bank failures along Paradise Creek, the creek handled the rising waters better than most waterways in the area. He said the Latah Soil and Water Conservation District and the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute have done several restoration projects, such as planting vegetation along the creek to hold banks in place, to mitigate Paradise Creek flooding.

"For the most part, I think Paradise Creek handled it a lot better than a lot of other places did," Schuldt said. "I think Missouri Flat Creek definitely did not handle it very well."

Ekins said a flooding event of this magnitude can really put restoration projects to the test.

"Streams are very resilient and can handle big floods like that," he said.

Ekins said floods can be healthy for land on either side of streams because sediment from the waterway settles on the floodplain and provides nutrients for the soil.

"It was very destructive to a lot of people and business owners and stuff, and it was somewhat destructive to streams and habitat, but much less so than to the people," he said.

Garrett Cabeza can be reached at (208) 883-4631, or by email to [email protected].

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