Carrollton Business Could Lose $500,000 To Flooding
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CARROLLTON(CBS11) - Steve Taber's nursery sits on 40 acres of land. The problem is, 60% of it is under water.
Taber says, "We will probably lose 40% of our inventory. It is a significant amount, at a time in May, our peak season, we have the largest inventory we'll ever carry for the year right now."
With a strong current flowing through here, you might think a boat might help. Actually, a front-end loader is coming in handy.
Taber laughs saying, "Yeah, I know, we have so much product over there we need to access, nothing we had is tall enough so we rented that and it's working out right."
Occasionally, Taber has to shuttle Southwest Wholesale Nursery employees around on the front-end loader. That's because it's the only way they can get to the trees they sell that are on the other side of his nursery, which is still above water. "It's a large under-taking, but we have no choice, we're going to make it work."
Long-time customers like George Richardson say they are thankful they can still get what they need despite everything Taber is going through. "Like I say, they take care of their customers, which is fantastic to us."
Taber says, "We'll do anything for our customers, and that's what it takes."
While he is open for business, and while many of his plants, trees, and flowers are just fine, Taber says he may lose about $500,000 in inventory.
He says he has no insurance, but that the premiums would have cost him more over the years than what he's lost.
Taber says his property flooded back in 1981 and in 1990, but this is the worst he's seen.
He says the water isn't going down and disappearing as quickly as it did before, and doesn't know when that will happen.
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