Freak flood costly to comic shop owner

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This article was published 11/10/2019 (2365 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three days of rain caused almost $1 million of damage to a local business owner’s inventory and personal collection by his estimation, and his insurance is only covering $50,000.

Sept. 21 will forever be one of the worst days of Friendly Neighborhood Comic Shop owner Scott Bradley’s life, he said, describing how a torrent of water swept through his basement, washing away a comic and collectible collection he had spent his entire life accumulating.

Bradley was woken up to his wife screaming at 5 a.m. as the basement of their house filled with water.

“I jumped out of my bed and into about two inches of water,” Bradley said. “I just assumed the water tank had blown.”

The water spread insidiously throughout his basement and what was at first approximately five centimetres of water soon grew to almost a metre of water.

Bradley reacted immediately in panic, he said, and began grabbing his collection of comic books and collectibles that were on the floor, throwing them onto couches, beds and shelves in his basement —anywhere he could get them higher.

He scrambled for about three minutes trying to save what he could when suddenly he heard what he described a loud “shotgun blast” as water that had pooled at the walk-out basement door came crashing in.

“All of sudden the water level went from two inches to three and half or four feet in depth in a couple minutes,” Bradley said.

He estimates that the water must have accumulated in front of the door to almost two metres in depth based on the waterline.

“It was enough weight to take out the metal door, bust the deadbolt right through the frame of the door and twist the metal door into shreds,” he said. “In came a literal tsunami of water.”

Bradley was immediately concerned, he said, because it was covering the electrical sockets and ran out of the basement because he feared electrocution.

He sought higher ground and stood powerless on the basement’s steps watching the water envelop his priceless items.

“The rest is history,” Bradley said with a sigh.

The flood was made worse by the fact that he had a large assortment of stock from his business in the basement while the shop transitions to a new location and is revamped.

To move forward with the store will be difficult because he no longer has any inventory to bring forward, he said.

It comes on the cusp of the shop taking steps to move forward on a national level with the introduction of the online ordering platform Comic Shop Ninja.

He estimates that in comics alone, he lost approximately $900,000 and another $50,000 in damage to household items.

“It was my Bat Cave,” Bradley said. “It’s gone. It’s just absolutely gone.”

He never expected or experienced flooding at such a catastrophic level before, Bradley said.

Bradley’s business insurance was supposed to cover up to $250,000 in damages, he said, but while he is allowed to have off-site storage, because it was in his house he no longer qualifies for this coverage.

He had extra insurance to cover water damage as well.

There were a lot of valuable items lost in the flood he said, but the worst part was seeing the sentimental items that were destroyed.

“My very own Archies (comics) from the ’80s bought off a spinner rack in Clear Lake when I was like eight, they’re worthless, but not to me,” Bradley said.

This comes on top of family photos that were destroyed and French Francs he received from his grandfather that dated back to the Second World War.

“Everybody thinks your insurance has you covered,” Bradley said. “I like to compare it to Vegas, but at least you know your odds at Vegas.”

The biggest lesson he took away from this experience, he said, is that there is no guarantee that money put toward insurance will protect someone in their time of need.

Bradley wants people to know about his experience so they can learn from it. He explained that people need to be aware, and not blindly trust their insurance agencies when they are told they are covered for the worst-case scenario.

After his experience, Bradley said he would look harder at what he is signing and consider taking it to a lawyer to ensure he is covered in the way he has been told by the insurance company.

“If you have anything valuable in your basement, get it out of your basement right now,” Bradley said. “That would make me happy, to see somebody not have to go through this.”

» ckemp@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @The_ChelseaKemp