Well due to predicted record flooding occurring one of my storage locations is going to be flooded within 24 hours.

I have already attempted to e-mail/ call all tenants to inform them, to either elevate their items or remove them to protect them.

I went down this morning and did some volunteer sanding bagging in the city. We had 4 guys down there helping including myself.

What I had heard is we need to take care of the cities utilities and such first, because they didn't have enough sand bags.

Well I can't get sand bags at all, some other businesses were taking 20x100 rolls of plastic and placing sand on it to make a 3 foot berm. Then weigh it down on top.

So we went out tonight about bought $1000 worth of plastic and trash bags to use as sand bags and we have a skid loader to load up the plastic to try and protect the facility.

We are not located in a flood plain at all, so no flood insurance.

Anyone have any suggestions on what to do if you have been in a similar circumstance. Specially how do I keep my tenants after this, if it does flood how do I go about cleaning up peoples units I can't contact.
Or any other bits of information.

I have no advice for you, but we are praying for everyones safety.

I would probably make sure to contact my Insurance (even though you don't have flood insurance it can't hurt) and also be in contact with your lawyer - let them know what is possibly coming.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Wayne

RandyL

First - Best of Luck over the next few days. The pictures we are seeing on the Weather Channel and on-line have made me stop and count my blessings and say a pray for everyone involved.

In any disaster situation, fire, flood, etc. one of the critical things to focus on is your business must survive to help your customers. I have dealt with a catastrophe fair at a facility years ago. the first thing that we did was to hire 24 hour security. Depending on the total impact on your facility, there may be a period of time that customers should not be allow on the site for safety reasons.

I would remove all rental agreements and the computer from the office. You need to check the rental agreements and insurance addendum's for completeness.

If you do have dramatic damage, and I pray that you don't, getting your insurance adjuster to the facility as quickly as possible will be key. photograph photograph the situation with the time/date stamp visible on the image. if your office is damaged consider bring in a rental RV to serve as a temporary office. you can have the telephone company transfer your office line to a cell number temporary. This will guarantee you that you are not missing phone calls.

You may be forced to take action at the site before every customer shows up especially if they are dealing with damage at home or live out of town. You may have to hire independent insurance adjustor's to do a preliminary evaluation of someone's unit so that you can move forward with corrective action. Your local insurance agent can help direct you to a company to help in this area.

Finally a couple of thoughts about dealing with the media. Again in a worst case situation, you are forced to comment to the media about the situation. Every comment you make should be about your customers and your concern for them. Do let them try to get you into talking about insurance liability issues and finger pointing. Your public image is all about the customer. Remember that a reporter or person with a press credential has no right to accessing your property. If you don't want them filming or do a live remote from inside your property talking to some customer who has lost everything - you can prevent them from coming onto eh property by explaining that No One Comes On The Site Except Our Customers for everyone's security. Don't let your managers slip by talking to a reporter either. You have to take the posture that they are not your friend and you don't owe them anything. The focus on the customer as you are already doing with your sandbagging efforts already proves that you are looking out for them.

Hope that you and your facility are protected.

MisterJim444

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a update for people.

On Wednesday morning they were predicting the river to crest at 22.1 feet. By noon on the same day that jumped to 24.5.
When I left the facility that night the level was at almost 23 feet. Buildings were a couple feet from being in danger still. Fast forward to now the river is now at 30.9 feet and expected to crest at 32 feet. I have no clue how bad it is there as we could not get anywhere close today. I can only assume most if not all of the buildings are underwater now.

The city here is completely devastated nearly 4000 homes flooded. 100 city blocks downtown underwater. Water supply at critical levels with only 1 of the 4 wells in the city still running.

On the news tonight they said the last well was in danger and they needed volunteers badly to save the cities water supply. Within 20 mins there was 1200 people there, and they were turning people away. I was wading in water past my knees building the wall, and it appears it worked to.

RandyL

Please know that our thoughts and prayers continue to be with you and the members of your community. As we all watch this tragedy unfold before us, the actions of the people to pull together - to put aside the finger pointing and feelings of frustration and just jump in to help each other is an uplifting message for the whole country.

All my best,

MisterJim444

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I am hoping some of our sunshine heads your way soon -- we will gladly take all of your rain!

Good luck - as Jim said -- our prayers are with all of you! Keep yourself safe!

All of us should get together and look through our abandoned storage units for items that they could possibly use. I know I have one with clothing and some old blankets I was just going to throw out -- I will contact the red cross today to donate all of it!

What can the rest of you do to help? Think about it!!!

Wayne

Randy- I would like to echo Jim's comments. We watch this tragedy unfold in disbelief and cheer on those who are fighting to lessen the impact.

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Luckily I also run a mobile pressure washing business. So I will have no problem cleaning things up. I think right now is to start with the building that has the least amount of units with stuff in them and start there. Get some large dumpsters, and help people clean them out.

Here's the issue we are going to have people that we can't get ahold of. And we are going to have to cut off locks to clean up. And I am not sure how to handle this at all.

But I simply can't wait for people to reply and take their time, because my pressure washing business will be in high demand in other areas as well.

Well I just got the first photo of the height of the damage at my facility. I also got to get within view of the buildings earlier this evening and the water has gone down alot already. And they are all still standing.

Early estimates put the damage at about $750 million for the city of Cedar Rapids alone( would not include the city of Palo etc) and that is before they can actually inspect anything. At the peak there was 438 city blocks under water.

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Palo_One.JPG (35.4 KB, 8 views)

Wow. That reminds me of how the area around some of my stores in New Orleans looked. I am sure there are lots of people here who will assist in whatever way we can. Keep us informed Randy.

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