OTTAWA, Kan. — A day after more than eight inches of rain dumped on Ottawa, Kansas, floodwaters that crept up the walls of local businesses started to recede.
On Friday, several pumps borrowed from other towns sucked water out of the town back into the nearby river.
Several businesses started the clean up process after being able to get in their shops for the first time since Thursday morning.
"I was just hoping it wasn’t going to be as bad as I figured it was, it was," Richard Towe, the former owner of Three Guys Liquor, said. Towe's grandson now owns the store.
Because of the water, thousands of dollars of alcohol now have to be tossed out.
Other businesses along the empty Main Street corridor spent Friday wiping away the flood's residue.
"We are bleaching the floor, deep cleaning everything and just trying to get everything put together," Mike Finth said of wife's A Cut and A Clip salon.
Other businesses are seeing what's salvageable.
"Just cleaning, seeing what’s good and what’s not, start from there mostly not," Rod Ball, owner of Dale's Body Shop, said.
Ottawa residents are hoping the rains stay away next time.
"I’ve never seen anything like what we’ve just had," Towe said.
Many of the businesses tell 41 Action News they do not have flood insurance.
