Coulee News - Printable Version

Story originally printed in the Coulee News or online at www.couleenews.com

Published - Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Getting back to business is tough after water recedes

By JASON STEIN | Lee Newspapers

Tens of millions of dollars in damage to hundreds of businesses around the state have already been reported as a result of recent flooding, with effects already being felt by workers and the numbers expected to rise in the coming days.

Early estimates of business damage in the state stand at $45.3 million. The estimated total damage to businesses, homes, public infrastructure and agriculture is $470.5 million, said John Dipko, a spokesman for Wisconsin Emergency Management.

"These are very preliminary numbers that are likely to increase," he said.

Workers have been idled as their employers have struggled to determine whether and when they can reopen after their buildings and equipment were coated with muck and damaged roads and rail lines separated them from customers and suppliers.

Already, 750 businesses in a dozen of the state's hardest-hit counties have reported significant flood damage and inquired about federal help in the form of low-interest loans, said Tom Nocera, spokesman for the federal Small Business Administration.

"I'm positive that the number of business applications is going to balloon," Nocera said of the loan requests, adding that the flooding effects also extend to workers. "We know that there's been a huge impact just with the road closures involved."

Dick Mader, 52, a glazier, is one of the affected workers.

The basement space where Mader once worked on glass projects and other jobs at Beaver Dam Paint & Glass is filled with 40 inches of water mixed with chemicals stored there. Thousands of dollars of equipment and materials in the basement have been destroyed, he said.

Along with three other employees, Mader for now is out of the job he's held for three decades. It's not clear if the business will come back, he said.

"Imagine yourself if the place you've worked for 30 years wasn't there any more," Mader said. "It's going to be hard."

Here's a sampling of businesses affected around southern Wisconsin:

The undamaged Nestle Purina PetCare plant in Jefferson voluntarily shut down last week to avoid sending more wastewater into the city's overtaxed treatment system, spokeswoman Jill Winte said. The canned pet food plant has about 185 workers.

The Tyson Foods meat processing plant in Jefferson was idled last week for the same reason and also sustained flood damage later, Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said. Only about 130 of the plant's 500 workers are employed in clean-up efforts, he said.

It's not clear when the Tyson and Nestle plants will reopen, Mickelson and Winte said.

In Janesville, a preliminary estimate of damage to private businesses was pegged at $22.6 million, said Peter Riggs, an administrative analyst for the city — $15 million alone to the Degussa Chemical plant, according to an estimate reported to the city, Riggs said.

After a breached embankment drained Lake Delton, reservations at Baker's Sunset Bay Resort on the lake are down about 75 percent this month and 60 percent for the summer, general manager Dawn Baker said. The family owned resort, which isn't damaged and still has an indoor pool, has been able to keep its full-time staff working but hasn't hired as many seasonal workers, Baker said.

Business is also down at other Lake Delton resorts, a situation that wasn't helped by recent closures of highways leading into the area, she said.

The Golden Living Center nursing home in Fort Atkinson has sustained some flood damage and has had to evacuate 87 residents to a church and other locations, where workers continue to serve them, executive director Jason Strnad said.

It will be a month or two before the state will have any jobs numbers that could show the effect on workers, said Eric Grosso, a labor economist for the state Department of Workforce Development.

Grosso said he'd look to see potential job losses in tourism and hospitality industries. On the other side, repair efforts will boost the state's construction industry in the coming months, he said.