The first time we couldn’t believe it. We were standing on the other side of the bank while the flood was happening, just hysterical. We came back here the next morning and opened the door on this complete ruin. Then we started trying to figure out what the hell to do next, without really knowing. That Saturday was the American Homebrewers Association “Big Brew” event — brewers from across the country all coming to Baltimore. Somebody in one of the local homebrew clubs co-opted the Facebook page for that event and turned it into a clean-up for us. People started showing up with rubber boots and gloves on, dozens of them, all asking “how can I help?”
The flood insurance makes you keep metal and glass for salvage. We set up stations to separate them from the trash, photographed everything, washed it down. We got the entire space from completely obliterated to stripped out and pressure washed in six hours, which is incredible. Some of those people were our customers, some were our friends, and some were complete strangers we’ve never seen before, just folks from the neighborhood. I think that people in Baltimore take care of their own. The community is the reason why we opened again, and the community is the reason we’re still here.
Anyone who is going to rent or buy in a floodplain should speak to people who have been through floods and dealt with the flood insurance process to make sure that they understand it. The first thing you need to do is engage yourself in the community. Find out who the people are who have been through it. The second time we flooded, I went straight home and filed the flood claim. We shaved twelve days off of our reopen time. Time is what matters. Everything is about how you respond to it. It’s resilience — you prepare yourself for the next thing.
Brian Arnold is co-founder and co-owner with Jill Antos of Nepenthe Homebrew.
Photo by New Lens Productions.
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