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PAINT LICK — As the rain came down nine days ago, Mark Gumbert was at his office on Ky. 52 in Paint Lick, watching the water rise.

Gumbert and one of his employees tried to save as much as they could from the front office of Copperhead Consulting, Gumbert’s ecological consulting company. They rushed things from the lowest shelves in the office to the second floor, but as the water continued to crawl closer to the building’s electrical outlets they were forced to seek safety above as well.

Once Kentucky Utilities had confirmed power to Paint Lick had been cut, Gumbert and his employee returned and began once again rescuing whatever was lowest to the ground.

“It took us about two and a half hours,” he said. “We just barely beat the water.”

When the flooding peaked, the water inside Copperhead was 30 inches deep; when the water retreated, it left behind a layer of mud on the floor. Gumbert estimates his business sustained $150,000 in damages.

Price Sewell, a biologist from Lexington who works for Copperhead, said while many computers were evacuated to higher ground, some of the business’ specialized electronic equipment used to track wildlife was damaged in the flood.

“(The cleanup) is going to take a long time,” he said. “I would say we’ll still be taking care of some of it a month from now.”

Copperhead Consulting is just one of many businesses and families in the Paint Lick area that have been cleaning up for the past week, in the wake of what some older Paint Lick residents say is the community’s biggest flood since the 1910s.

Damage in the thousands

The water was more than 52 inches deep at its highest inside L&M Auto and Tire’s main garage. Owner Larry Nicely said water was also 2 feet deep in his office — and water has never risen as high as his office.

Besides wreaking havoc on his plumbing, the floodwaters did $25,000 to $30,000 worth of damage to equipment in his main garage, and another $5,000 to $10,000 in damage to equipment in a secondary garage.

Despite the situation, the atmosphere in Paint Lick during the cleanup has been good, Nicely said. People from outside of Paint Lick, even outside of Garrard County, have shown up to help clean up.

Eight employees from Timberland Shoes in Danville volunteered their time to help clean up along the main stretch of town Friday. Deputy Judge-Executive James Bushnell said the employees, who have volunteer time built into their job duties, already were planning on volunteering time with Garrard County to work out at Logan-Hubble Memorial Park.

After the flood hit Paint Lick, Judge-Executive John Wilson asked the employees if they would help with the cleanup instead, Bushnell said.

Gumbert said the Timberland employees did a great job cleaning up gravel that had washed onto Ky. 52, creating a major dust problem.

“The support from the county was great,” he said. “It was awesome just to have support from the community.”

The Paint Lick post office, First Southern National Bank and Friends of Paint Lick are three more businesses damaged in the flood. A sign on the bank Monday said it would be closed indefinitely. Gumbert said a doctor’s office next to the post office has temporarily relocated to Berea.

The Paint Lick Sportsman’s Club is looking at $10,000 to $20,000 in damage from the flood, Chairwoman Deborah Messenger said. It could be a lot worse than that, though — it’s possible the club’s main building was picked up and shifted by the water.

Messenger said she would have no idea how to estimate the cost of fixing things if that proves to be the case.

“If the building actually did move up and out of part of its support system, we will have to literally tear that portion out and either reconstruct or make it smaller,” she said. “We do not have those kinds of funds at all.”

Many in Paint Lick said they do not have flood insurance. Gumbert said he is unsure whether he could even have flood insurance, because his business, along with the others at the Madison County line, are not in the appropriate flood zone.

Federal officials in town

Federal Emergency Management Agency workers should be in Paint Lick today, surveying damage. Many business owners hope they can receive some kind of assistance in putting things back the way they were.

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler also will survey the damage in Garrard County today.

Don Weber, owner of Handcraft Furniture, said until he gets his business cleaned up enough to begin making furniture again, he is just living off of his savings.

“In the long run, I’m lucky,” he said. “I can go back to work as soon as I get everything cleaned up enough to work.”

Floodwater forced open the front doors of Weber’s business and swept all of his furniture and equipment against the back wall. One of the building’s exterior walls was warped by the water, and there’s now a gap more than a foot wide between the wall and the foundation. Many pieces of Weber’s woodworking equipment were completely submerged, though he now has quite a few of them working again.

Gumbert and his employees have been helping Weber with his cleanup as well as their own, and much of Weber’s furniture and equipment has been moved into a vacant building owned by Gumbert.

“In the community itself where everyone was affected, there’s been a sharing of energy and help to get us all back running again,” Weber said.

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