The grand Mississippi River has turned into a swelling monster by rainfall and snowmelt, forcing people to flee their homes and seek refuge for their belongings in the safety of self storage. Those self storage facilities at a safe distance from the floodwaters are seeing record-high occupancy rates, surpassing what was seen after Hurricane Katrina five years ago. [More]

When Mother Nature strikes, the impact can be disastrous and life altering. Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis can wreak immeasurable hardship and pain, including lost homes, businesses and even lost lives. We need only to look at Japan to be reminded of this. Sometimes businesses step up and support those dealing with the repercussions of a natural disaster. Self Storage businesses often offer assistance, making perfect places to collect goods and food for those affected. [More]

Last week the media was just starting to report that several prominent country musicians, such as Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, expected to lose instruments and most of their touring equipment to the Nashville flood. The damage was done when the rising Cumberland River invaded Soundcheck Nashville, a storage and rehearsal space that at least 600 musicians rely on. This week reports of the actual, as opposed to the anticipated, damage started to come in.

In the end, musicians had to wait three days for flood waters to recede before they could attempt to enter their storage units at Soundcheck. When they did go in, they had to don rubber boots and gloves and wade through puddles. According to The Tennessean, salvagers found around 1,000 guitars, 2,000 amplifiers, and hundreds of drum sets that were damaged or destroyed. [More]

Some of the worst of the Nashville flooding this week has hit Soundcheck Nashville, a storage and rehearsal space relied upon by many prominent country musicians. Some musicians, including Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, have lost most of their touring equipment and many of their guitars.

"I sent a Tweet the other day that basically told people that when they come to the show just know that what you're seeing has been fully tested under water," Paisley commented jokingly to an Associated Press interviewer on Wednesday. His H2O tour is scheduled to begin in two weeks in Virginia Beach, Virginia. "You're talking about total cred. This is the H2O tour. This isn't posers acting like we know about it. We've done it, buddy." Almost all of Paisley's touring equipment was underwater, although one exception was the 1952 Fender Telecaster, painted in a paisley pattern, which is his trademark. But Paisley is determined to start his tour on time. "My guitar tech is spending like a broker on the stock exchange floor," he said. [More]

Tennessee's historic floods last weekend are hitting poor Tennesseans the hardest. Many lost nearly everything they own when the Cumberland River came rushing through their homes. Now that the waters are starting to recede, flood victims are salvaging whatever they can. But they need a place to put the things they salvage now that their homes have been destroyed -- or at least rendered unliveable.

In response, self storage facilities all over the state of Tennessee are offering a month of free storage to flood victims. Most self storage facilities also offer free storage to tornado victims whenever there is a need. Some companies, such as Extra Space, always offer a month of free storage to first time renters. [More]

A marina in Freeport, Texas, will have to move part of its drystack boat storage facility, because the storage building sticks out onto land that has been earmarked for use by the state highway department. The boat storage building encroaches 22 feet onto land that will be used to construct the new Pine Street bridge. Freeport will have to spend $347,510 to move the offending section of the building.

Although the move will be expensive, members of the Freeport Economic Development Corporation (FEDC) were pleased with the estimate, saying that it would cost about $100,000 less than they expected. Despite their pleasure at the lower estimate, FEDC members are still not certain how they will pay for the relocation. [More]

Residents of areas that are at high-risk of flood across the United States left their homes this week and moved as many of their possessions as they could into storage. The National Weather Service warned on Tuesday that one third of the contiguous United States is at high risk for “historic flooding.” In many areas, the flooding has already begun. [More]

Officials in Fargo, North Dakota, announced yesterday that they are searching for sites at which sandbags can be stored to prepare for the spring flooding season. According to Fargo Enterprise Director Bruce Grubb, the city is currently calling for volunteers to fill the sandbags. Fargo plans to fill one million sandbags over the course of two weeks, starting on March 1. While the city has some storage sites in mind already, they are still looking for others.

The National Weather Service is predicting that the Red River has an 86 percent chance of producing major flooding in the Fargo-Moorhead area this spring. Conditions now are very similar to the conditions that preceded last year's Red River flooding. [More]