Each flood takes a bite out of Seattle-area candy maker

This winter, we’ve heard a lot about flooding in small towns, and the damage those communities have had to deal with.

But flooding this year is hitting urban communities too. And in urban areas, even a small flood can cause serious economic damage.

Boehm's Candies in Issaquah offers a glimpse at the burden that flooding puts on some urban businesses.

Boehm’s Candies has been making chocolate in this region since its founder fled from Hitler in 1941. Today, it’s a family business on the banks of Issaquah Creek, which flooded the first week in January.

Narissa Burton is taking her dad, Bernard Garbusjuk, around to see the water damage. There’s good news and bad news. The good news is the chocolate, and the expensive cardboard packaging, was saved.

But this place has more than that. It's not just a chocolate factory. It’s a chocolate factory that looks like an alpine chalet that hosts weddings. To help the business thrive, it's diversified, becoming a tourist destination. They’ve put oodles of money into landscaping.

“We thought we improved it enough, but this is like a nightmare, because this is now the third or fourth time we have to redo a lot of the ground upkeeping — which is a lot of damage.”

Some water got inside the chapel. And water is coursing underneath the log cabin where brides get ready.

“We should have a boat here. That would be nice. So now we have waterfront property. So now we can sell it. Sell!" Garbusjuk jokes while standing in calf-high water.

Part of the joke is that they don’t want to sell. Garbusjuk’s plan is for this business to go to his kids. But his daughter, Burton, is worried. The flood has torn the landscaping to shreds. She says insurance won’t pay for it.

“People don’t realize — all of this is money," she says, gesturing to the grotto-like garden area around her. "As much as we’re thankful that it hasn’t gotten into the factory, the landscaping of all of this, and the gravel going on the grass and all this is still a $10,000 bill before we’re all done for it.

"And that for a small business is really hard to just keep having all those impacts," she continues. "Between Covid and having to restructure our entrance, snowstorms and this … it’s just one thing after another. And everything keeps adding up.”

As floodwaters rose on Thursday night, the family came together to save the business. The city of Issaquah offered sandbags, but Burton had already taken the truck to Home Depot to pick up a pallet of them. She says she paid her husband and kids in Oreos to get them to lay sandbags, while Garbusjuk worked inside to move expensive supplies to higher shelves, just in case.

Garbusjuk says about 40 years ago, a flood came much higher than this year's flood, reaching halfway up the factory's back door (which was a window back then).

There hasn't been another flood like that since. But he says today's floods are harder, in a way, because although they're shallower, they're far more frequent. "And so yes, there is a worry, how many times can we redo all of this?"

Garbusjuk says he’ll keep going because he made a promise to the company founder Julius Boehm when he took over. He was just the head candy maker back then.

“I pledged to Julius Boehm that we would carry on as long as we can. So there’s really like a moral obligation for us to keep on going. And I did it for 50 years, and hopefully my son and my daughter will continue doing it.”

They’ll just have to regroup a little bit.

Explore the flooding in Issaquah in photos: