Lehman's Hardware Flooded!!!!

[billooo2]

We have had some serious flooding in this neck of the woods. Lehman's Harware. Employees were told to report to work with clothing to deal with clean up.
The warehouse and headquarters were not affected by the flood, so the catalog and on-line sales are not affected.
This is what some of the side roads around me look like this afternoon (I did not take this pic, but it looks typical)

[Oggie]

Thanks for letting us know.

I'm glad I hadn't ordered any computer stuff or electronics from there.

Water can really mess up that kind of equipment.

[Cyngbaeld]

Were they affected by that dam burst?

[billooo2]

Originally Posted by Cyngbaeld

Were they affected by that dam burst?

I don't think so, but I cannot say for sure.

[Gary in ohio]

The main building sets between a creek and a drainage ditch, no wonder they are flooded.

[Rick]

We had WAY to much water in the 1/4 mile shared creek bed / road when I got to it with a loaded Subaru after my 1st trip to town in 2 weeks. The 5 MPH water spay was higher than the roof rack, but we made it through Okay.

Subaru good car!

[galenlehman]

We've reopened the lobby area of store and hope to have more departments opened soon. (Our catalog, website, phone service and shipping departments are in a different building "at the top of the hill" and so mail order has been unaffected.)

The flood was a devastating experience: 18"-36" of water came through with a tidal wave of mud, corn cobs and a tree trunk. In two hours, the water had already drained away, but the mud, corn cobs and tree trunk were still there.

We worked yesterday from 8 am to 10 pm with 30 employees and nearly as many volunteers to open the store by this morning. We hope to have more departments open later this week. Kidron's giant Machinery Auction is Saturday, we want to have as much open as possible by then.

In the meantime, I covet your thoughts, prayers and support. And, for the many folks who made long drives to our store only to find it closed, thanks for your amazing understanding!

Galen Lehman
http://www.lehmans.com

[CherieOH]

We headed there yesterday but kept running into flooded roadways and finally gave up and went back home. Lehmans, as well as others devastated by flood waters, are in my thoughts and prayers.

[Wintergrower_OH]

Thanks Galen . Glad to see you on homestead today.

[MattyD]

-Yep, the river's coming up a bit near me by Bolivar too. Just praying that we don't get the storms they are calling for over the weekend or it's gonna get quite a bit worse. I'll keep an eye out for Noah's Ark!

L8R,
Matt

[Ken Scharabok]

The problem here in my area of TN is we get a lot of rain during the winter, so the ground stays saturated. Come a heavy rain and it doesn't have anywhere to go but sideways.

[MattyD]

-Our problem here was that we had two snow storms last week, then a pretty heavy rain on Monday. Melted just about all of that snow with nowhere to go. There were quite a few roads closed due to high water since Monday.

L8R,
Matt

[Mike in Ohio]

Originally Posted by Cyngbaeld

Were they affected by that dam burst?

The Dam that burst was further East and North (maybe 25 miles away) on the Chagrin River.

Mike

[galenlehman]

Thanks so much for your concern! We are gradually digging out from the mess. Lot's of good folks pitched in to help. Because of that, we have been able to open our doors in record time. But not every department is open. Here's a quick update...about all I have time to give you right now.

Cause: A major drain pipe uphill from the store was plugged with ice and snow. When it let go, thousands of gallons (one observer called it a "tidal wave") came downstream at once. In addition, a farmer down hill from us built an illegal bridge, which damed the stream and may have added to the problem. The creek water hasn't been this high in 50+ years.

Plan: We have about half the store open now. We will have everything but the Cafe and the stove department open by Saturday, one week after the flood. We want to sterilize the cafe and will open by mid-March. The worst flooding was in the stove department, and we should be able to open it in April. We are selling salvageable flood damaged items at 50%, but only to people who can inspect them at our store in Kidron Ohio. (Sorry we can't do it by mail!)

Advice: It's true that we didn't have flood insurance. It will be a big setback for us, but we are committed to overcoming it. Most people I talk to are astonished to hear that our insurance won't pay for flood damages. But, the dirty truth is that your insurance probably doesn't cover it either. If you think you will ever need it, please, please read the fine print of your policy today (or call your agent). You don't want to find yourself in the situation we did.

Galen Lehman
See my blog at http://www.galenlehman.com
Photos of the damage/cleanup are at http://www.facebook.com/lehmanshardware