Weeks after a flash flood brought on by relentless rain, several businesses are still struggling to cope with the aftermath of what’s being called a once-in-a-generation phenomenon.
Water levels have long-since subsided from the Aug. 22 storm that dumped more than 100 millimetres of rain on Westlock, but its effects still linger.
Among the hardest hit was Westlock Bowl and owners Don and Susan Cloutier say the bowling alley will be out of commission until at least January.
“The flood damages that were sustained by the bowling alley are greater than anticipated,” said Susan.
The couple said they tried their very best to keep the sewer backup water from entering the basement bowling alley, but they couldn’t.
Even though water did make its way in, the owners tried their best to salvage what was left, running dehumidifiers constantly, but were met with an unfortunately reality.
“The uneasy decision was made to unplug the dehumidifiers, taking the alley off of life-support,” she said.
“We tried to preserve as much as we could, but basically there’s more damage than they originally anticipated.”
Susan says they haven’t been given any sort of estimate on total damage costs, although the entire space has been gutted and is need of a complete rebuild.
“We’re in the process of dismantling the entire basement and Canada Restoration has given us an approximate opening date of January 1,” she said.
“They have to remove everything.”
On the positive side, Susan said it’s an opportunity to rebuild.
“We’ll watch the dismantling and watch the process as they rebuild it.”
Down the street Home Hardware was also badly affected with its basement also the victim of water damage from sewer backup.
Owner Blair Kneller said the basement, which represents two-thirds of his retail area, will be closed for about three months.
“We basically lost the basement,” Kneller said. “It’s getting gutted. The whole retail area I had downstairs is non-existent.”
Kneller explained he lost all his merchandise and has found out the basement has asbestos and needs serious work before it can open up again.
A good insurance policy, he said, has helped him cover off much of the expense, but the biggest worry is what he’ll do come Christmas.
“The hardest part is going to be Christmas for us because I don’t have space this year,” he said.
“I’m anticipating it will be three months before we’re back in the basement, which puts us to the end of November sometime … I haven’t been ordering my Christmas stuff, so it’s definitely going to affect us.”
Kneller said he was not given any estimate on damage, but said with the amount of work involved he can’t imagine it will be cheap.
Over at the Westlock Royal Canadian Legion Branch the service club has been told to expect insurance to pick up only a portion of the hundreds of thousands worth of damage to its basement.
“We’ve have two or three other claims and it was hard to get full coverage this time,” said Legion president Dave Linsley.
“We’re struggling to find resources to help us out … our adjuster said it’s probably well over $100,000.”
Linsley said the Legion’s basement filled up with more than a foot-and-a-half of water damaging the floor, chairs and bar.
“The bar is gone, it was ruined, the chairs have to be recovered and that’s over $8,000, and about half of the [drywall] has to be taken out, totally,” he said.
Linsley said the Legion is now starting to plan for the recovery and will likely look to fundraisers to come up with the money to make repairs.
“To raise $100,000 is pretty tough in these times,” he admitted.
“We’ve contacted our command in Calgary and we’re waiting to hear from them if there’s anything that they might be able to do.”
Despite being in a bad way, Linsley said it won’t deter the organization from its continued support of the community.
“Any money we bring in from gaming, we have to give a lot of that back to the community so we’re still going to be doing that, until we run out of those funds,” he said.
“We can’t and won’t use any of that money for renovations or anything like that.”
And with Remembrance Day coming up in November, Linsley emphasized that Poppy Funds will not go towards renovations.
“Absolutely none of those funds go back into the building,” he said.
Ultimately Linsley said the Legion is optimistic the community will help out an organization that community groups and organizations lean on for funding.
“We’re kind of hoping,” he said.
According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, and industry association, figures from the flood won’t be available for weeks, even months.
A spokesperson for the bureau explained there’s been no indication overall damage will top $25 million — a threshold that would require a third-party report.
