VIDALIA — Carla Jenkins hasn’t found the needed cathartic release at the end of a two-month emotional rollercoaster, and she doesn’t see it coming soon.

Sure, it was nice to see the Mississippi River fall below flood stage for the first time in weeks Wednesday, but for the owner of Vidalia Dock and Storage the saga isn’t over yet.

Business has restarted at her family’s riverside property, home of Vidalia Dock and Two J Ranch, but though the floodwaters are gone, the damage remains.

Since Concordia Parish still has not been declared a federal disaster area, finding the money for repairs has been difficult, Jenkins said.

“It is a relief that we are still here and open with our fleets back up and running and our barges coming back in,” she said. “But as far as not receiving any assistance from anybody, that is just frustrating.”

Jenkins said she does not yet have estimates for needed repairs, but she does know it is going to be quite an expensive chore.

On top of that the business had higher expenses to fight the flood.

“There was a lot of labor and overtime we have to pay for,” she said. “We also had the expenses of securing our own equipment. We had to put out so many more cables and other equipment to make sure our boats didn’t head down the river.”

Jenkins said her crew also had to remove all the equipment from two of her shops located near the river.

“Both of them flooded with about seven or eight feet of water in them,” she said.

“We would have lost everything had we not gotten it all out.”

Some of the equipment the Vidalia Dock crew moved included oil and fuel tanks, items Jenkins said were necessary to remove to prevent environmental damage.

“We had to move that, or else something even worse could have happened,” she said.

“It is just frustrating to hear that there is no help for us even though we were just doing what we had to do.”

Jenkins also said her office located near the Comfort Inn Suites was completely flooded due to the high waters.

“The entire thing flooded,” she said.

“We had to evacuate, and all the floors warped and buckled and the sheetrock and the baseboards were damaged.”

Jenkins said she does not know how long it will take to completely repair the Vidalia Dock office, but she hopes to be back in it within the next few months.

“I am going to keep on trying to get what I can,” she said. “We need some help. I just hope we can get it.

Still, it’s good to look out and see the river in its place again.

“I was talking with my foreman while we were looking around earlier, and all we kept talking about was how this is the lowest we have seen the water in a long time,” Jenkins said. “It feels really good to see it back that low.

“We went through a lot of fear, a lot of frustration and a lot of sadness. But at the same time I was really proud of how all of our guys came together and evacuated in nine days.”

Jenkins said her crew worked all hours of the day, with many of them leaving work to go straight home and begin moving their own items to higher ground.

“They were all really devoted, and that is what got us through this,” she said.

Vidalia Dock and Storage provides tug services for area river facilities and services grain elevators and operating boats that work up and down the river. Two J Ranch sells limestone rock for construction and landscaping.