KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The owner of the VanderSalm's Flowershop and Garden Center said they’ve seen their fair share of floods. They’ve been on Burdick Street and Crosstown Parkway since the 1940s and have gone through several floods, including one in 2008 when two days of rain produced 11 inches of water.
“The floodwater was not as high as this,” said John VanderSalm looking at the water surrounding his flowershop. “We flood sooner and worse.”
Saturday’s continuous rains accumulated to over 5 inches. Several areas around Kalamazoo were flooded, including public parks and major roadways. The city blocked off many of those roads, including Park and Rose Streets. Crosstown was taped off too because the water was too high for cars to pass through. One employee at the flower shop took the trash out in waist-high water.
“Our basement still has about 3 or 4 feet of water in it,” said VanderSalm during an interview in his parking lot. “It was close to the ceiling yesterday when we came here.”
VanderSalm said that even though it rained all day on Saturday, the flooding didn’t begin until that night. He and his staff put up sandbags to prevent the water from going into the building. However when Kalamazoo police called him to tell him the alarm was going off he knew he had a problem.
“All of our air conditioning, cooling equipment and communications equipment — telephone, internet what have you down there — are all inoperable,” said VanderSalm. “We got a lot of work to do once we get the water out.”
Monday, they began pumping out all the water he said. The work room and green houses were all flooded. Employees worked on their cell phones and they’re determined to keep the shop open while the damage is repaired.
“It takes a long time to come back from something like this,” said VanderSalm.
