Boulder businesses make do amid mud

BOULDER – A river of mud – up to six inches deep in some places – still covered the former parking lots and buildings of several businesses on North Broadway in Boulder almost three days after storms that caused devastating flooding had moved on.

Passers-by stepped carefully on the muddy sidewalk in front of SecurCare Self Storage as cars drove by slowly, kicking up clouds of dust on the road. A backhoe moved dirt in the obscured paved parking lot of KL Realty, at 4535 N. Broadway. Three doors to the north, a forklift moved clean solar panels from inside of the water-logged Namaste Solar Electric Inc. building into waiting storage truck trailers.

At SecurCare, 4545 N. Broadway, workers shoveled water and mud from a clogged storm drain. Area manager Melissa Melgaard watched nearby, taking phone calls and in-person questions from storage unit customers worried about their belongings. A man raised his voice, worried about his truck parked in a SecurCare unit.

But for the most part, people were calm about the potential damage to belongings in the units, Melgaard said. Water and mud flooded into the facility from the west side on Sept. 12, and kept coming after that, according to Melgaard and nearby business owners.

Officials estimate $150 million in damage was done to roads, bridges and buildings in a preliminary assessment done across the Front Range. More detailed numbers were not immediately available, as businesses and residents continued to clean up.

At Namaste, one building north of the SecurCare site, cleanup workers from Ecos Environmental & Disaster Restoration Inc. were loading up clean solar panels.

Boulder Namaste workers were working from the company’s Denver office and from space at Tendril Networks Inc., a power grid software company located near 55th and Pearl streets in Boulder, said Blake Jones, a co-founder of Namaste.

“It’s been crazy. After the water finally stopped, we said ‘Hooray, the water stopped, but look at the sediment it left behind’,” Jones said. “We’re thankful that we could shift our operations.”

Jones said he expects Boulder cleanup to take three to four months. From a logistical standpoint, Namaste employees can work from anywhere, though, he said. Tendril volunteered space because its software dovetails nicely with Namaste’s work with the solar panels, Jones said.

In addition, volunteers from a B Corporation conference held in Boulder during the week also helped clean up the Namaste offices and parking lot, Jones said. B Corporation is a nonprofit group with a system to certify socially conscious businesses. Several local companies are B Corp.-certified, including Namaste.

The Ecos Boulder building several doors to the south of Namaste, was closed, and its parking lot was filled with mud. After flooding on Sept. 12, Boulder workers were sent to the Glenwood Springs office. Even though they were miles away, the workers were overwhelmed by phone calls requesting cleanup services in Boulder County, said Paige Grable, a Boulder worker in Glenwood Springs.

“Every friend I have was affected by this,” Grable said. “We haven’t had a chance to clean up our own office because we’re going to people’s houses and helping them.”

One door to the south of SecurCare, Stephanie Nelson, owner of Nelson Law Office, 4535 N. Broadway, was dragging out trash cans of waterlogged papers.

Across the street at Boulder Dental Arts, 4520 N. Broadway, Unit B, employees worried about the “river” outside in the street, but water never actually came into the office, said Jeff Patrician, owner of the practice. The parking lot was filled with water the next day – Friday the 13th. Patrician said workers passed out free bottled water that day to the hundreds of people walking around in the street to survey the damage.

“I don’t want to say it was a festive atmosphere,” Patrician said, “but it was like a snow day, where everyone comes out to see the snow.”

Boulder Community Hospital’s Foothills campus sustained some minor flooding in two offices near its laboratory over the several days of torrential rain, said Patti Sedano, a hospital spokeswoman. The water did not reach the hospital’s laboratory, however, and patient care was not impacted, Sedano said.

Hospital officials have donated office space to Boulder County CareConnect, which saw extensive flood damage Sept. 12 in its previous office space at Frasier Meadows Retirement Community, 350 Ponca Place, near Baseline Road in east Boulder. Residents of the assisted-living community were evacuated that night, said Kathy Pollicita, a spokeswoman. Many were later temporarily moved to Golden West Senior Living apartments and facilities.

CareConnect now is located in an office building on Riverbend Road across the street to the east from the hospital’s Foothills campus. The nonprofit coordinates volunteers with local seniors and adults with disabilities.

West of the hospital, Fate Brewing Co. was close to raging Boulder Creek but sustained no damage other than a flooded parking lot on Friday, said Hannah Lloyd, sales manager.

“We were nervous when it was raining as hard as it was. We came in Thursday night to inspect it and Friday night, but we haven’t had any serious damage at all. We’re fully open,” Lloyd said.

Pharmaceutical company CordenPharma Colorado, 2075 N. 55th St., saw some flood damage in its business development building from accumulated rainwater inside the perimeter of the company campus, said Abby Thompson, a company spokeswoman.

“After a short period of assessing the impact to the site, plant operations were restarted,” Thompson said in an email. “Remediation efforts also have begun.”

Some businesses on 15th Street between Arapahoe Avenue and Canyon Boulevard also were affected by flooding and mud. Art Cleaners workers at 1715 15th St. shoveled about six inches of mud off the sidewalk and street and put mats down inside, said owner Brian Hansen. Liquor Mart, 1750 15th St., was on slightly higher ground and saw only minor leaking in the roof, said Dominic Muniz, a store booth manager.

The Boulder Chamber stood ready to offer emergency assistance to any business that needed it, said John Tayer, president of the business group. In addition to offices and storefronts, many Boulderites who work from home may have been impacted by the flooding, Tayer said.

“The vast majority of businesses are back up and running and ready for business,” Tayer said. “Certainly others will have longer recovery periods.”

David DuPont, chief executive of TeamSnap Inc., was grateful that his office at 1035 Pearl St. was unaffected. TeamSnap makes a mobile application used by sports teams.

DuPont said his basement and those of some employees were flooded by the storms. But when he saw media reports that 119 houses were destroyed in Colorado during the storms, it “puts everything in perspective.”

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