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Tenants of Sebastopol Shopping Center Say Flood Plans Failed

SEBASTOPOL (KPIX) -- A vibrant shopping district in Sebastopol was trying to dry out from floodwaters Friday as angry local officials complained about the failure of flood-prevention measures at the shopping center

Only 24 hours earlier, the water in the upscale Barlow shopping district from the Laguna de Santa Rosa wetlands was nearly four feet deep in some places. Businesses told KPIX there was a plan in place to protect them from that flood, but that plan failed.

Co-owner of Kosho Sushi Restaurant Jake Rand said the damage his establishment sustained was staggering.

"Whatever you had in there is now completely submerged in this big giant bath of, whatever," said Rand.

There was even more damage at the nearby Brew Pub.

"From here, we're going to do some clean up and get everything sanitized and hopefully save some of the product. And we are going to work on getting some portable generators," Brew Pub co-owner Darrel Kirchner.

While KPIX was speaking to him, county officials came through and red-tagged Kirchner's business, something he said he was expecting.

According to tenants, the Barlow Business Development Area assured them that if a flood happened, the landlord would deploy special barriers to keep the water out. That did not happen.

Meanwhile across town, Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins is furious.

"I think we really need to have, quite frankly, an investigation into what went wrong," said Hopkins. "Because there was not supposed to have water getting into these structures. There were steel bars, skirts, there were things that were supposed to keep the water out, and all those measures failed."

KPIX reached out to the developer but they have not responded so far.

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