The toll that the April 29 flood has taken on the area’s nonprofit community continues to mount.

Mick Berault, executive director of the Waterfront Rescue, estimates that there is at least $500,000 in damage to the facility on Herman Street. It is the second time the Mission was flooded out since it moved to Herman Street more than two years ago, Berault says.

“This time,” he says, “we have flood insurance.”

A preliminary adjuster has been to the site; Berault says later this week, a follow-up adjuster should come to take measurements and gather more specific information.

Berault says “everything is down,” including the mission’s administrative offices, the day center the mission itself and the recycling center. The administration building and day center had 20 inches of water; the mission and its donation warehouse and recycling center had 8 inches, Berault says.

“The county was working on the drainage here, but they just didn’t get ‘er done,” Berault says.

Transients who normally stay at the mission are using Salvation Army facilities for the time being; Berault says the overnight dorm may be reopened later this week.

Damage to the donation and recycling center are particularly tough to handle. That building was the storage facility for donations intended for sale at the mission's bargain centers.

Everything on the first floor had to be thrown out and development assistant Jessica Howell says the estimate is that $23,139.47 worth of merchandise was lost.

The bargain centers are one of the mission's major sources of revenue. Howell says that donations are welcome at the mission's bargain centers to help replace what was lost. Donations but me clean and dry so that "they can be put right out on the floor."

Sixty men who were in the mission’s programming track and using the Career Development Center on Olive Road will move to the gym at Hillcrest Baptist Church while Berault and the rest of the staff set up their shop at the Olive Road facility.

“(Hillcrest) has been great. They’ve really stepped up,” he says.

The flood’s heavy toll on the area’s social service infrastructure is piling up. Manna Food Pantries main pantry on Tarragona Street is likely a total loss. Berault says damage to the Workforce Escarosa building and the Escambia Community Clinic’s facilities are adding to an already taxed safety net locally.

[progresspromise]