SEWAGE BACKUP FLOODS, CLOSES FOOD FOR PEOPLE

Eureka Public Works to send camera through area pipes

Food For People, a major local food bank, closed its services on Friday after a sewage backup flooded much of the organization’s warehouse in Eureka.

A staff member for the organization arrived Friday morning to witness water shooting out of a floor drain. Two-thirds of the building on 14th Street quickly flooded. Crews have worked throughout the day to clean up the mess.

The warehouse will remain closed on Monday as the group assesses the damage. The building was the only one on the street impacted. There is no timeline for reopening the warehouse.

“We’re going to have to dispose of all the food in the warehouse,” Anne Holcomb, Food For People’s executive director, said Friday. “Some of the waters splashed up on the walls, so we might have to rip into the walls to get to the damage.”

There’s currently no known cause of the problem, which appeared to have resolved by itself this morning — an uncommon development for sewage situations, Eureka Public Works director Brian Gerving said Friday.

“Usually if there’s a sewage backup, it’s because there was a plug or some sort of structural failure of the pipe,” Gerving said. He added that in the coming days, crews will be “televising” the sewage lines, or sending a camera through

the pipes to record for possible damage.

Food For People serves more than 12,000 people a month countywide, and close to 1,300 households a month just through its Choice Pantry, and the damaged warehouse is the organization’s largest storage area. Holcomb said the group also owns the building and is insured for damage.

In the meantime, Food For People will establish contingency plans next week and rely on a second, leased warehouse to provide at least

some food supply to families in need. But if the building is shut down, finding another permanent space will be difficult, Holcomb said.

“The cannabis industry has snapped up a lot of warehouse property locally,” she said. “We also need to be out of the tsunami zone because we’re a disaster relief organization. We have walkin freezers, coolers, forklifts; it’s not so easy to pick up and move someplace else.”

PHOTOS BY SHOMIK MUKHERJEE — THE TIMES-STANDARD Workers walk across a warehouse floor covered in sewage water at one of Food For People’s primary facilities.

Food For People executive director Anne Holcomb said she had never seen damage like this in 19 years at the organization.