A dispatch from Louisiana

It's been a stressful time for Louisiana. The Red Cross has deemed the recent flooding the worst natural disaster in the U.S. since Hurricane Sandy, with preliminary estimates of damaged homes topping 60,000.

John Holmes of Baton Rouge-based Holmes Building Materials found some time to report back to HBSDealer on business conditions at his store, but not all Louisiana dealers suffered the same fate.

For instance, Baton Rouge-based State Lumber experienced the flooding firsthand, getting about 8 inches of water in the store and some flooding in the lumber outbuildings, according to Do it Best spokesperson Randy Rusk.

Holmes' Baton Rouge location stayed dry, though the Livingston Parish location sustained water damage in the main warehouse area from 12 to 36 inches of floodwater. Additionally, a bulk storage area at the location flooded with 36 to 48 inches of water.

The biggest challenge so far, says Holmes, has been staffing. The store was able to open the Monday after the storm with a limited staff, but 51 of 125 team members were directly affected.

"Last week was a zoo," said Holmes. "Do it Best has been able to ship a [disaster truck] almost every day to us since the flood to restock the stores. Our retail business continues to be very brisk, but our pro business is almost at a stand-still. Most of that is weather and labor with all the demo work going on."

Holmes said the store finally got back to full staff this week, and they are currently looking to hire roughly 15 new team members.

"Most of our best pros have a plan to be involved in the reconstruction with their own customer base and will venture out to new customers if they can manage," he added. "Our normal builder builds [between] 10 to 50 homes per year, so they each have a long list of potential repair customers on homes they have built in the near past."