We were struck by the rampant flooding that has devastated so much of our area. We had about three inches of water in the store, requiring an extensive clean up. We are working hard to get the doors open and actually feeling a bit lucky. We see so many of our friends who have lost their homes and we wish that everyone could be the same again with a lot of mopping and some disinfectant...
We got some warning
On Saturday afternoon we noticed water shooting out of the storm drain in front of the store and the current from Richland Creek began to advance up the back parking lot. Although these situations improved before 6:00 pm, we decided to put everything we could at least 2 or 3 feet above the floor. These actions saved our computers and our shoe and helmet inventory. We also moved the most expensive and customer bikes up to the loft.
Saturday afternoon, before the deluge
Sunday afternoon
We had tried to reach the store Sunday morning but police had closed the Harding Road and we spent a few hours waiting for the waters to recede, not knowing if we had been hit. We were able to get to the store about 4:30 pm and we found it had been covered front to back with about three inches of muddy water. We knew that we had to get the clothing out before the water began to smell sour so we quickly dispatched a team to Target to buy large storage bins and then proceeded to pack every fabric item in the store up for a brief vacation in the Greer house.
Monday Was a Day of Cleaning
We hit the ground running Monday and after a cleaning 400K, we have cleared all the mud. It took a lot of running water, 3 or 4 passes with a mop, and a lot of disinfectant, but Gran Fondo will be ready to serve customers again within days. We did decide to rip up the carpet that covered the left side of the showroom and we will probably refinish these floors with some fancy decorator finish as long as it involves gray tile on rough concrete.
Those guys in service can be pretty messy...
Will There Be a Flood Sale?
Even though we came out pretty lucky, we still have some damage. We couldn't get everything off the floor, so we did lose some packaging, and nobody wants a brand new trunk rack without a flashy Saris box... Check back soon and we will post some sale details. For now, I'll just post some pictures of the mess, plus some shots of our poor neighbors around the store.
Wiping the mud off the tires is a great thing to do with your dad.
Mop and scoop, under the watchful eye of Pantani.
Believe it or not, Clayton pretty much repositioned the dumpster by himself. He's very strong.
Everyone in the neighborhood lost their dumpster, but someone upstream lost their storage container. This was taken at the back of the adjacent parking garage.
No parking!
It's all so strange.
That is some water hazard newly installed on the Belle Meade golf course.
We had to lose some of the accounting records to justify the "Oh, we had those but they were lost in the flood of 2010" excuse for any IRS audits, etc.
Routes We Always Ride
Looking down Vaughn from the entrance to Horseshoe Bend
Looking West from the same location
Looking toward the Little Harpeth bridge from the intersection of Vaughn and Sneed, Sunday afternoon
So sad.
