By Joseph S. Pete, Daily Journal of Johnson County
Franklin business owners have squeegeed and power-sprayed their properties, pitched unsalvageable records and rusted-out equipment and cut deals with suppliers to reopen after the flood's devastation.
Homes and even vehicles have served as makeshift offices as business owners tried to keep cash coming in while they clean out and rebuild.
More than 30 businesses in Franklin suffered flood damage, which ranged from mold in the basement to a concrete-block wall washed out by the rain-swollen Youngs Creek. A few businesses have gone weeks without any cash registers ringing, while some are still weeks away from having any income.
A few may never reopen.
Five businesses flooded along Madison Avenue across from the Greenwood Park Mall, and floodwaters ravaged Voris Upholstery, Beads Unlimited and Professional Carpet Systems in downtown Whiteland.
Employees spent days cleaning at a custom auto shop and a truck engine repair shop in Edinburgh, which were filled with standing water for nearly a week.
But damage to businesses was most extensive in Franklin, where offices, retailers, restaurants, salons and auto shops all were hit. Victims ranged from a comic book store bootstrapped up without a bank loan to an office for Kansas City-based Embarq, a corporation that brought in more than $6.3 billion in revenue last year.
Franklin Mayor Fred Paris said the destruction would be particularly hard for the downtown area, which is already plagued by vacancies.
"We can't really afford any more empty buildings when we're already trying to find acceptable uses for a lot of them," he said. "Fortunately, those that may close down had relatively few employees, but those are people's jobs."
Franklin's major industrial companies, often surrounded by expansive lawns, were largely spared from flooding, planner Joanna Myers said. Amcor and Precision Cutoff LLP both had water seep into their building but were able to recover in days.
Some small business owners suffered devastating losses, such as A+ Computers, which relocated to Franklin just 10 days before several feet of water rose into his suite in the Alva Neal building.Flooding caused more than $100,000 in damage, destroying a dozen computers, a few laptops, more than 100 DVD drives and specialty tools, including a soldering devise.
"These last few weeks, it's been hell, just hell," owner Richard Larson said. "I've been building back up from nothing."
Larson had to lay off five employees: his secretary, a go-fer and three interns. Like some fellow business owners, he's refusing to take out a low-interest loan because he was required to put his house up for collateral.
"The government's been nothing but a source of frustration, and the last thing I need now is more frustration," Larson said. "I can go to any bank and get a business loan without offering my house for collateral."
Still, he said he was determined to rebuild. Larson plans to use earnings from repair and customer computer jobs to gradually restock his inventory.
A few businesses may stay closed after suffering total losses.
Paris said he heard that Sparkel Cleaners might not reopen. The longtime Jefferson Street dry-cleaning business, whose owner could not be reached, sent all of its clothes to Milto Cleaners in Greenwood to be restored.
Some businesses were able to swiftly start serving customers again, such as 79-year-old Generations Collision Services on Monroe Street. Owner Scott Graham said he was able to start working the Tuesday after the flooding, thanks to the help of members of his church.
Graham hung a large banner thanking them and proclaiming that he's still open.
The torrential rain also flooded out other long-standing Franklin businesses, such as Franklin Engineering Co. and Franklin Auction, both of which have been downtown for 50 years.
Over the past few weeks, Franklin Engineering Co. owner Steve Williams has often been doing business on his cell phone in his car while driving to other engineering companies' offices to use their copiers.
Franklin Engineering Co. lost about 80 percent of its paperwork and has sent a hard-drive to a Chicago firm in the hope of retrieving some of the files as the six employees continue to handle surveying work and engineering projects.
Some companies, such as Embarq, have spent the past month repairing damage. About 5 feet of water got into Embarq's Jackson Street office, destroying furniture, carpeting, computers and electronic equipment. Nine vans packed out back were also wiped out.
Spokesman Jim Wagner estimates that at $175,000 in damage was caused to the building alone.
Flooding also caused at least another $100,000 in widespread damage to Embarq's infrastructure throughout the city, including switch boxes and cables that suffered corrosion.
For weeks, phone and internet service were down throughout pockets of the city, even those unaffected by the flood, as technicians scrambled to repair remote switches and replace corroded lengths of cable, manager Matt Eckerty said.
Many business owners haven't even been able to tally the extent of the damage they suffered. Dan Paris, who owns flood-damaged Paris Goodyear Tire and Auto Repair and A1 Recovery, said he may never be able to assign a cost to what was lost.
Water sloshed around Paris Goodyear, upending floating 55-gallon drums of oil. Dan Paris has since been replacing shop equipment, air compressors and welding equipment.
An overflowing Youngs Creek rushed into his A1 Recovery yard, submerging about 150 junked vehicles and ruining parts that could have been resold. Starters, alternators and brakes all had resale value, but he now has to scrap all the rusted-out husks for metal.
Floodwaters destroyed four of his wreckers and rushed into the shop, violently jerking up all of the bay doors, which he's since boarded up with plywood.
Overflow from the creek raised a bay door in Hendershot's Plumbing across the creek.
The current ripped through the building, raging through a cinderblock wall.
Hendershot has locked all salvageable possessions in the back and office rooms and doesn't know what he'll be able to do about the building.
He's still waiting to find out if he can rebuild at that location, where he's been open for nearly a decade.
Further north on Jackson Street, the corporate office of Office Pride, a commercial cleaning franchise, took four feet of water, which ruined nearly everything in the building.
Employees only started returning weeks later to the corporate headquarters, which licenses franchises in 17 states, last week. They did business at home, making frequent trips to post offices, banks and other downtown businesses to send faxes or make copies.
All calls were rerouted through a satellite Florida office, until drywall was gutted from the office and workers were able to return.
Throughout the downtown, floodwaters hit some businesses on low points, while sparing others. Vicki Dolph-Gossett, co-owner of Sweet Intentions Bakery and Café, was amazed that her restaurant was wiped out while Don and Dona's, which is just a block east, stayed open June 7.
On the west end of the downtown, floodwaters deluged a strip mall with Sweet Intentions, Mona Rae's Salon and Tan Magic.
Tan Magic co-owner John Hagan just spent about $20,000 on two new state-of-the-art tanning beds at his business, which has been downtown since 1996.
All of his tanning beds, which cost at least $6,000 each, were submerged. Because of the cost of the damage, he said it wouldn't be worth it to reopen if the insurance company doesn't pay.
Like many business owners, he's still waiting to find out what will be covered.
Floodwaters trashed the newly opened The Juke Box and Colleen Caveny's Skin Care and Salon, which was about to reopen after relocating from a strip mall to a more prominent Jefferson Street location.
The Admiral gas station took more than a foot of water inside, destroying merchandise including candy bars and cigarettes. Water infiltrated the oil tank, contaminating a week's supply, which was returned to a refinery, manager Jeanette Willis said.
On the east end of Jefferson Street, overflow from Hurricane Creek and backup from storm sewers flooded seven businesses, including the Clark gas station. Two pump motors, which run $8,000 a piece, had to be replaced before they could reopen, owner Nick Singh said.
As weeks have passed, cracks in the concrete lot have continued to widen, and Singh is concerned about costly repairs that may be in store.
Just next door, a contractor has been gutting drywall at BK's BBQ, which was scheduled to soon open at the former Aunt Judy's Country Kitchen location.
Industrial-strength fans have been running over peeled-up floorboards at Townhouse Gifts, and the furnace and air conditioning system must be replaced at Ashley Drake Historic Inn and Gardens, both of which are closed for the immediate future.
All three businesses in the Alva Neal High School building - Johnson County Telecom, A+ Computers and Top 5 Comics - were washed out of the first floor, and have since relocated to upper levels while waiting on drywall to be replaced.
They may not be able to get back until August, Larson said.
Water flooded the basements of the antique store A Certain Charm and two downtown law firms, Cutsinger and Shaftstall, and Rogers & Gesse.
A Certain Charm lost half of its available floor space, which has hurt sales, owner Charleen Tobolski said.
Cutsinger and Shaftstall employees had to haul out four truckloads of drenched files, while water reached up to the rafters of Rogers & Gesse's basement, destroying 25 years worth of files and a collection of law books.
The firm lost a week of productivity as employees cleared out file cabinets, which were set out to dry. None of the files was needed for day-to-day business, and those that are can be replaced at the courthouse, partner Jack Rogers said.
He had long resisted the trend of researching legal precedents and the law using online databases, but said he'd start now, rather than replacing all of the destroyed books.
Like most flooded business owners, Rogers said those who lost their homes were in much worse shape.
"They deserve our sympathy more than anyone," he said. "What happened was just catastrophic to many families, and you just hate to see it."