BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. — Several local business owners in Candler are still cleaning up after a nearby creek flooded last week. On Wednesday, Gov. Roy Cooper paid a visit to Mountain Power Performance, one of the businesses impacted.
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Some business owners in Buncombe County are still cleaning up after severe flooding last week
Alexis Giese owns an auto repair shop and says there was about 5 feet of water inside
Giese says his family and employees climbed onto the roof to stay safe
Alexis Giese, the owner of Mountain Power Performance, says he’s exhausted. His auto repair shop was flooded with about 5 feet of water.
“It seems like the mud never ends,” Giese said. “Your tool boxes that are drawers and drawers, and every drawer is full of mud. Tens of thousands of dollars of tools covered in mud. It’s very depressing.”
A lot of things were just swept away as the water levels rose.
“There’s a lot of things that just floated away, and that’s so overwhelming that right now you don’t even know, right now, what you’ve lost,” Giese said.
Trying to process this situation as a business owner is tough enough, but dealing with it as a husband and father is something else entirely.
“My wife and daughter were by the front doors trying to get out. They were in the adjoining room,” Giese said. “I went by banging on the window telling them, ‘it’s coming. You got to get out.’”
Giese says he, his wife, daughter and employees actually climbed onto the shop’s roof in order to stay safe.
The water lines on the walls and cars now serve as a constant reminder. Giese says he never wanted to face the fact that his livelihood was at risk, but now he’s thinking ahead for when it happens again.
“We do have to plan if, or actually when, how can we diminish the impact,” Giese said.
Giese says he's talking with experts to see what changes he can make to his building to help keep floodwaters out. He wanted to share his experience, because he wants others to take the risk and danger of flooding seriously.
Giese hopes to make enough progress on cleanup that he’ll be able to start working again, in some capacity, Monday.