Dan and Andrea Brown, just returned from a camping trip, loaded piles of clothes into a washing machine at the Suds & Sun Laundromat in southwest Minot on Saturday afternoon.
The place was packed and nearly every washing machine and clothes dryer in the place was busy. The Browns said they had stopped at a laundromat on South Broadway, the Off Broadway Laundromat, that was even busier.
Suds and Sun general manager Savana Pitcher said both north and south locations of the business have been packed since the flood.
"Since the evacuation, you can tell (it's) night and day," said Pitcher. "Our business has easily doubled."
Last week a charity called Tide Loads of Hope used the Suds and Sun laundromats to do laundry for flood evacuees. They worked round the clock doing two loads of clothes per family per day during the week they were in Minot. During that time, Pitcher said she staffed the laundromats 24 hours a day so they could catch up with work during the night when the laundromat is closed. They also still have a number of clients dropping off loads of laundry to be washed. Pitcher said there is a four-day wait to get those loads done.
Pitcher said a lot of the people coming in haven't been in a laundromat in years or have never used a laundromat at all. Business seems to be picking up as people are able to get into their homes in the evacuation zone and are bringing flood-damaged items to the laundromat to be cleaned. Pitcher said the laundromat is able to clean clothes after a flood or fire using a special wash called a restoration wash. The laundromats also have high-efficiency machines which use less water, an advantage when people are being asked to conserve water.
Pitcher said the machines are dirtier at night now because people are washing flood-damaged items. Her staff must clean the machines thoroughly each night.
The Browns said they don't always use the laundromat but with five children, it is occasionally necessary for them to stop there to do big loads. They've noticed how much busier the laundromat is than usual. The burden is heavier because there are fewer laundromats in operation.
Mitch Evenson, owner of Expressway Laundromat and Car Wash and RV Park located by the North Dakota State Fairgrounds, said it will be about two weeks before he's able to reopen his laundromat. It was heavily damaged by the flooding. The RV park, also damaged, is about 80 percent open and is being run on generators. Evenson estimated there is about $200,000 damage to the business.
