Ike Kofstad, owner of New Richland Auto Repair in New Richland, MN, is trying to recover from a flood last week that damaged both cars and equipment that were in his business. He told a local reporter from the Waseca County News that his alignment machine, exhaust bender and tire machine were all damaged by flood waters.
Below is the article as it appeared on the Waseca County News website.
New Richland recovers from flood damage
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
By Zach Hacker
NEW RICHLAND — Home and business owners continue to clean up this week in the aftermath of the flooding that enveloped large portions of New Richland on Thursday and Friday.
Ike Kofstad, owner of New Richland Auto Repair, is still trying to get everything back to normal at his business after flood waters surrounded his building and rose to about a one and a half feet inside the shop and office area.
When Kofstad arrived at work Thursday morning, the water had already crept into the parking lot and one car in the southeast side of the lot had water inside. He and mechanic Matt Beckmann monitored the rising water and tried to move cars to higher and drier land as they continued to keep the business going throughout the morning.
By the time the vehicles could no longer be moved anywhere else and Kofstad left the building at about 3:30 p.m., there was already four inches of water in the shop. When he returned at around 6 p.m., he estimated there was a foot of standing water.
At that time, New Richland resident Larry Muff showed up and volunteered to help Kofstad get some equipment into his pick-up truck and lifted up out of harm’s way. Although some things were saved, others could not be.
“For some of that stuff it was just too late,” Kofstad said. “My alignment machine was already under water. We’ve got some stuff with electric motors, heavy equipment like our exhaust bender. That piece of equipment probably weights 1,500 to 2,000 pounds so you can’t move that easily. The tire machine, the electric motor on that is probably no good.”
To read the entire article, visit the Waseca County News website at http://www.wasecacountynews.com/news.php?viewStory=6487.
