Art and Creativity: What's Your Backup Plan, Part II - DISASTER STRIKES!

Life is often ironic, and there's no explaining why things happen the way they do.

Last week, I wrote a post about having a "backup plan" as an artist... this following on the footsteps of Steemit being unavailable to users for a while due to a DDoS attack. What do you do when something you usually count on is disrupted?

A Little Too Close to Home!

Today started off like pretty much any other day-- I would spend the morning writing and working on my eBay businesses, and then head into town to work a day at the gallery.

Except, it was not to be!

Early morning I got an urgent phone call from our landlord, saying that we needed to come to the gallery "as soon as possible" as there had been a flood.

I have dealt with "floods" before-- usually the result of burst water pipes or leaky water heaters-- so I figured we'd spend morning mopping up and drying some things.

That is NOT how things turned out!

A Freak Thunderstorm...

When we arrived at our gallery, it was to a complete mess and chaos. 

There were already two pumper trucks parked in the alley behind our gallery (and the four adjoining businesses) bailing out large volumes of water.

Uh-oh...

As it turned out, a sudden heavy thunderstorm in the night-- following on months of unusually dry weather-- had dropped about 3/4" of rain in 15 minutes, which actually resulted in a small "flash flood" washing through the rear parking lot, completely overwhelming the storm drains and the building sump pumps, and in no time at all resulting in 8-10" (20-25cm) of standing water inside all four stores in the arcade where we're located.

This is NOT how you dream of starting your day!

Pumping Water and Assessing the Damage

Most of the day was spent basically getting the water out of the building and getting to a state of semi-dryness again; the rest of the week will be for cleanup.

Naturally, we also spent some time assessing the damage-- most of which had to do with anything on, or near, the floor. Sadly, a number of original art pieces stored in bins were damaged, some beyond repair. Some might be recoverable with help from a restoration expert we know.

Then, of course, comes the issue of "who pays?"

This is one of those situations where it's well and good that we have insurance, but the insurance companies are going to try to play "pass the buck" rather than come to our rescue. 

Was it the City's fault, for perhaps not having cleaned the storm drains?

Was it the building owner's fault, because the emergency pumps were inadequate to deal with the flow of water?

Will our insurance even cover, given that they are now claiming we are "not covered" when the problem is water coming from outside the building, rather than inside? 

Of course, the gallery will have to be closed for at least a week-- and our "business interruption" coverage may not be effective if the insurance company determines that the incident is due to "water from the outside." 

How Small Businesses Get Hurt

In the meantime, we still have to face expenses:

There's the expense of simply cleaning up, to where our gallery space is habitable again.

Then there's the expense of having restoration work done on a number of pieces of art... and we will have to pay artists who had items on consignment for those pieces that cannot be repaired.

In the meantime... the gallery will be closed for at least a week, meaning that our already limited cash flow grinds to a complete stop at a time when we have above normal expenses.

So now we find ourselves in the middle of a "live" example of responding to the question of my previous cautionary post: What is your backup plan?

For now, our primary plan is cleanup and get reopened as quickly as possible. Getting our daily sales cash flow going again, is top priority. Like most small independent businesses, we don't sit on a large cushion of "reserve cash" for situations like this, so we really have nowhere to turn but "hard work" to clean up and rebuild.

In the spirit of this being an educational tale for others, we can review whether there is anything we could have done differently, or better?

On the whole, very little. Knowing that this building has had water enter before, we could have had some of our racks up on blocks, rather than sitting directly on the floor. Most of everything else was taken care of. Perhaps we could have asked more questions about our insurance... although it was far from the realm of possibility that a flash flood would come rushing through the gallery. Previous "water incidents" involved less than one inch (2.5cm) of water on the floor.

Your Help is Appreciated!

Anyway, in between our usual posts of information and tips from the art world, we'll also post a few updates on the daily progress as we try to get back to normal again.

We're not asking for donations or charity, but if you see fit to resteem this... and perhaps give us a nice upvote... we'd naturally be grateful, as every penny counts and we'd like to get up and running again as soon as possible.

Thank you for reading! Red Dragonfly is a proud member of the @sndbox creative initiative.

The Red Dragonfly is an independent alternative art gallery located in Port Townsend, WA; showcasing edgy and unique contemporary art & handmade crafts by local and worldwide artists. All images are our own, unless otherwise credited. Where applicable, artist images used with permission.