Snow, ice weight brings down another building
BROKEN BOW - Thankfully no one was in the Chapin’s Furniture and Decorating Warehouse when it collapsed last Thursday. “We had finally gotten into it just the day before,” Gene Chapin said. He owns and operates Chapin Furniture and Decorating with his wife, Lola.
The warehouse had been inaccessible for some time.
“After the first snow storm with the rain and ice, we struggled with the doors to the building freezing shut,” designer Connie Pearson said. “The freeze thaw made it almost impossible to open the doors and access materials.”
After the mid-January snow of two feet, access to the buildings for semis to deliver product became impossible. “The city did its best but there was a lot of snow,” Gene said.
The building is Chapin’s main warehouse, their “work” warehouse where they prepare carpets, tile and other materials for installation. “It houses all of our roll goods, flooring material and pallets of wood, tile and vinyl planks,” Connie said. Customers sometimes come to the building to pick up merchandise.
Because of the inability to get to the building, installations were put on hold. Deliveries came to a halt. Inventory was being housed in Omaha.
“Little did we know what an advantage this would be,” Connie said.
Gene added, “There were very few customer products inside.”
To get inside after the fall, the front door had to be cut in half and removed. “It’s out on the ground now,” Gene said.
Work is proceeding on cleaning and clearing. What inventory was in the building is most likely damaged, if not from the collapse then from the snow and ice melting in near 50 degree temperatures on Monday.
It was about 24 hours before the building fell that Gene had finally been able to clear enough ice to open the doors. They once more began making installation arrangements with customers.
“We got in the building the day before it crashed,” Gene said. “I was in the building Wednesday.”
What would have happened had someone been in the building at the time of the collapse? Thankfully they don’t have to worry about that right now.
Gene has said his insurance agent told him to proceed with cleanup and “Do what you got to do.”
Asked what the plan is, Gene said, “Every day it changes.” However one thing remains constant: “We keep on doing business,” Lola said. “We’re taking care of our customers.”
For the time, installation are once more being rescheduled. Some items have been moved to another location. They are making arrangements for storage as well as getting materials to job sites for installations.
Gene, Lola and Connie say customers are understanding.
“A huge thank you to our customers for their patience and appreciation of our situation,” they said.
They also thanked the people that have been helping them. “People all over are helping,”Gene said.