CEDAR FALLS - The flood waters never threatened businesses in the Cedar Falls Industrial Park, but at least one saw the impact Mother Nature can have on its bottom line.

Duane Kuenstling, office manager at Blue Line Moving and Storage, said several tornado survivors were already housing their personal effects in his storage units when those affected by the floods began calling in with similar requests.

And those looking for a large truck to move their belongings from one place to the next could have trouble securing a U-Haul in the coming days because of the flood waters. Seth Greenland, general manager of the U-Haul location at 3633 University Ave., said at least a few of his vehicles were unreachable this week because of the waters.

"One of my trailers I rent out locally ? this guy was told he would be fine until today (Wednesday) but when he went back to his trailer, all he could see was the roof and my trailer was missing," Greenland said.

Greenland said he is also hesitant to guarantee trucks for those looking to move this weekend because he isn't positive those stuck in flooded areas will be back in time.

But, storage units and moving companies weren't the only businesses experiencing an indirect effect of the rising floodwaters.

Grocery and large retail stores said they saw a run on water and non-perishable items beginning sometime Tuesday.

Chad Hartogh, a manager for the College Square Hy-Vee, and Ryan Rand, co-manager for the Cedar Falls Wal-Mart, said they had to call in reinforcements to handle the demand for bottled water.

Special deliveries from the company's distribution centers and bottled water manufacturers means both stores are now well stocked should similar requests crop up later in the week.

"We went through about 34 pallets of water," Rand said. "There was definitely a panic on anything to do with water. On a normal day we would sell about six at best, maybe eight on a Saturday."

Rand said rain boots and large cooler jugs were also popular, as were cheap sets of twin sheets.

"I think those were for the set-up of the temporary shelters. They came in and bought 250 sheets yesterday, pretty much everything we had for cheap twin sheets," Rand said.

The stores are also preparing for the flood's aftermath by ordering extra supplies like bleach and cleaning solutions.

Hartogh said they are also being flexible with employee schedules to accommodate those affected by the floods or those who wanted to help with the sandbagging efforts.

Cork Peterson of Peterson Contractors Inc. in Reinbeck, knows all about those sandbagging efforts. His company was one of the main contractors called in to help with the effort in Cedar Falls earlier this week.

Though the floods aren't directly affecting his business, it is causing him to shift his attention.

"Most of our jobs are flooded out right now," Peterson said. "Any work that was in a low area, you aren't doing."

So, when the city of Cedar Falls asked them to mobilize for the sandbagging effort it was all-hands-on-deck. Peterson said about 50 employees and several pieces of equipment were in Cedar Falls Tuesday.

The crews started pulling sand from the PCI sand pit on Dunkerton Road, but when that area was no longer accessible, they shifted their resources to the Aspro sand pits. While the Waterloo company had plenty of resources to offer - about 7,100 tons of sand were hauled from there Tuesday - Peterson said it was often a headache trying to transport the sand loads from Waterloo to Cedar Falls.

"There were a whole lot of people out on the roads who shouldn't have been, slowing things down," he said.

Peterson finally headed home after 1 a.m., but the last people didn't leave the Main Street area until about 3 a.m.

Milt Dakovich, the Aspro manager, said several thousand more tons of sand headed out Wednesday. Although the sand can't be reused by Aspro - they use it to make asphalt - he said there are some uses for the product.

"It won't all just wash down the river," he said.

Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1570 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.