In three years as the owner of Frank's Paddlesports Livery and a lifetime as a self-described "river rat," Peter Bloomquist has learned to respect – and at times, fear – the water. Still, when he read that the United States Geological Survey gage on the White River in Nora reported a water level of 16 feet on Friday morning, he thought it must be an overestimate.
"I'm saying to myself, 'That is absolute bulls—,'" Bloomquist said. "There's no freaking way."
By early on the morning of Aug. 15 the Nora gage read 19 feet. The measurement eventually peaked at 21.18 feet that afternoon. Bloomquist, whose business sits on the west bank of the White River in the Near Northwest-Riverside neighborhood, had already begun hearing from friends farther north who were ankle-deep in floodwater. Late that morning, Frank's Paddlesports posted a video on Facebook that showed brown-green water rushing past the business' front door.
Bloomquist considers himself lucky. And compared to many people in Indianapolis, he is.
While Frank's is "closed until it's not," the store out of which Bloomquist rents canoes, kayaks and other equipment did not flood internally. Bloomquist estimates the water level peaked about a quarter-inch from the front door.
"It's a whole lot of business," he said of the cancellations and refunds that come with having to shut down temporarily. "There's gonna be a lot of monetary clean-up efforts at our spot, but it happens. I have a feeling we'll be just fine with that."
Over the weekend some central Indiana courses, which spend thousands of dollars per year to carefully distribute water across their greens and fairways, became inundated.
An employee at River Glen Golf Course in Fishers told IndyStar the course was closed at least for the week until water levels subside. At Bluff Creek Golf Course on the Morgan-Johnson county line, most of the course holes were completely covered in water by Sunday. Only a handful of elevated holes stayed dry.
The south-side golf course sits in a natural floodplain near the overwhelmed White River, which crested there at more than 17 feet Aug. 17. Typically, when flooding happens, patrons can still golf half the course, or nine holes, Knieper said.
But this time, Knieper had to shut down Saturday night Aug. 15 and all of Sunday, a severe hit to his business' bottom line. Per Bluff Creek's website, the course was still closed Aug. 18.
"This flooding has never happened in the 30 years I've been here," Knieper said.
Knieper is hoping for cloudy and dry skies this week as the water recedes. Intense sunshine would heat up the water covering the course, which could further damage the grass, he said. On Monday, Knieper was focused on making it through the day.
"We can still be OK as long as this water goes down," he said.
Unplanned closures are a hassle for any business. Then there are the ones that essentially can't close, like the Hotel Broad Ripple on Westfield Boulevard directly across from the White River.
"It's kind of hard to just close a hotel when people are counting on being there," said owner and manager Debbie Hasbrook.
