Last week in eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York state, several campgrounds experienced serious flooding.  With the resulting of extra costs to cleanup and get back up and running PLUS one of the big weekends right in front of them! 

Flooding is never nice, but for some campgrounds it is a fact they have to live with and for the most part get around or deal with it!  The fact that many campground are on water, either a creek, river or lake….  Flooding is a real possibility for all.  But the fact that the campground is on water is the reason many campers choose this campground!

This is just the normal perils of small business.  Whether you are a hardware store or a campground, “_ _ _ _  happens” and you deal with it.

So how do you look at a campground that has occasional flooding? 

1. Review the history.  How often, how severe and what has been the impact of such flooding?  When does it usually happen… in the Spring when the campground may be empty or in July when it could be full.  Has the flooding situation been mitigated?  For instance, many campgrounds in the Northeast experienced a devastating flood in 1972 from Hurricane Agnes.  Many localities installed new flood controls to mitigate future problems.  See if this is the case in any particular campground.
2. How does the campground owner handle the situation?
3. What is the cost of dealing with flooding?
4. Determine the advantages of being near a potential flooding body of water.
5. If the potential of flooding is not something you can handle, move on and look for a high and dry campground. But it will have another problem to deal with.
6. If you can’t handle the uncertainty of small business ownership…. Stick with you day job.

End Notes:

July 4^th 2006.  On this day we celebrate our independence…. That was the day in 1776 the all the i’s were dotted and t’s crossed in the declaration and the document was signed.  We also note that July 4^th was the death day of two major players in that declaration, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.  Both, Adams at 90 and Jefferson at 83, died hours apart on July 4^th 1826, 50 years after the signing of the declaration.

Adams wrote of July 4^th (Actually July 2^nd, because that was the day that the deal was done!) these words: