Photos by Erin Nelson.
rews with Barber Companies push flood water outside after heavy rain Monday caused major flooding in Vestavia Hills on July 20.
When floods covered the southern part of Vestavia Hills along U.S. 31 on July 19, Kate Jenkins, owner at Kiva Hot Yoga, could only watch on a security camera as water flooded into her studio.
“I was praying it doesn’t flood the whole building,” Jenkins said. “It was a very helpless feeling.”
The bottom 24 inches of their wall, as well as their floor and the insulation had to be removed due to flood damage. Insurance will cover the cost of repairs, but not the contents, Jenkins said.
Kiva Hot Yoga, which offers yoga classes in hot rooms, focuses on providing healing and peace of mind through hot yoga, Jenkins said.
“We look for people who are hurting,” Jenkins said.
The business has been around for 10 years and is in the Old Town Center, which routinely struggles with flooding as a result of the drainage problems with Patton Creek and the lower elevation of the shopping center.
“We’ve been through this before,” Jenkins said.
There are “some pains” right now, Jenkins said, but the business has found a temporary space. Jenkins said the city of Vestavia Hills did not make that process easy and said city staff took a long time handling electrical and building inspections on the new building. Each day the studio could not offer classes was “another day out of income,” Jenkins said.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Heavy rain Monday caused a landslide in front of the Birmingham International Church, as motorists travel along U.S. 31.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Mud covered roads and parking lots in the Olde Towne shopping plaza and Park South Plaza on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. Heavy rain on Monday caused major flooding in the shopping centers on Montgomery Highway.
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The city’s communications director, Cinnamon McCulley, said the city has three inspectors for the entire city, which covers 19 miles and 39,000 residents.
Jenkins said Kiva’s members have been very supportive. “People depend on this as health care,” she said.
The studio serves as a “sacred space” for some, offering a Christian community and a positive environment for personal healing, Jenkins said.
She envisions being in the temporary space for a while and said the heat is actually better in that building than their existing studio.
Just a few feet from the yoga studio lies the Birmingham Wrestling Complex. On July 19, Vestavia Hills Fire Chief Marvin Green said a swift water rescue boat had to rescue stranded wrestlers who were there for practice.
There was no real danger to the students, but they could not get to their cars for the 4 feet of water in the parking lot, he said. While there was some water in the building, it was dry enough that some students stayed and practiced until the waters receded, Green said. The Fire Department was able to transport six or eight students who wanted to leave to higher ground, he said.
At Vestavia Bowl, the owners learned their lessons after major flooding damaged the business in 2014. General Manager Angela Nance said there was no water on the lanes themselves after the most recent floods, and the only somewhat major issue was the failure of the motor that carries the balls from where the pins are back to the bowler’s table. The bar area had some water that had come over the bowling alley’s flood doors, but it was more “like a spilled mop bucket,” Nance said.
“Our flood doors really saved us,” Nance said. “It really wasn’t that bad.”
Previous flooding has been traumatic, and the precautions they’ve learned over time have helped keep the bowling alley open, Nance said.
In addition to flood doors, there is a retaining wall around much of the building, and the owners are looking at raising that wall to provide even more precaution, she said.
While water will fill up the bowling alley’s parking lot, the business itself has not suffered the major damage it did in 2014 in some time, Nance said. Seven years ago, the whole doorframe caved in and a wall collapsed after water wrapped around the building, she said.
“Having gone through this a few times, you know what to do and what not to do,” Nance said.
The bowling alley recently updated its scoring system and display monitors as well, which were installed on July 20, the day after the rain event hit the city, Nance said.
“We were very fortunate the day after flooding was the day that the new upgrades came in,” she said.
The business only had to close for a few days to clean up and install upgrades, and was open for league play on July 22, and open fully on July 23, Nance said.
