Following a tornado and, separately, a disruptive water main break, the Louisville service centre of Equipment Depot is rebuilding and recovering.

Four tornados touched down on 22 June in Jefferson County including Louisville, according to the National Weather Service.

One tornado damaged the entire roof and destroyed a 19,200 sqft. (1,728 sqm) portion of the dealership's structure.

Total costs of demolition, construction and equipment replacement are expected to exceed USD2 million, says Jeremy Smith, operations manager for the location.

In the destroyed area, "we had five service bays with technician work space", Smith notes. "About one quarter was used for storage."

The Louisville centre has more than 30 employees including field technicians and serves primarily Jefferson County with outreach in Kentucky as far east as Lexington and as far west as Hardinsburg and in Indiana as far north as Madison.

"The tornado took off all of our roof and half of our building," Smith reports. "We have been able to use a half-empty warehouse two buildings down the street. We were up and running with internet and phone lines until the water main broke. People were working from home and using cell phones."

The Equipment Depot organisation supported the Louisville site. "Other branches were able to help us out with service vans and rerouting phone lines," Smith says.

The Louisville branch is near the football stadium of the University of Louisville Cardinals and the major exposition centre of the Kentucky State Fair Board.

Meanwhile, in the midst of a summer heat wave, Equipment Depot provided the services of operator Robbie Bailey and a 5,000 lb. (2,250 kg) capacity Mitsubishi FGC25 forklift to move stocks of bottled water during a boil-water-advisory period in Louisville. Retail grocer Kroger Co supplied two semi-truck loads of vendor-supplied water that the Louisville Water Co distributed without charge at the university stadium.

An 80-year-old 4 ft. (1.2 m) diameter cast-iron water pipe broke on the evening of 11 July flooding a large area of the city and university campus and cutting water access for many businesses and about 75,000 residents. Repair crews may need until early August to replace the pipe.

The Louisville centre operated as LeveeLift Inc until adopting the Equipment Depot identity in 2008. The North American unit of privately held trading and service company Pon Holdings BV of Almere, the Netherlands acquired LeveeLift in 2000.

Forty locations of Pon's Houston, Texas-based Equipment Depot provide materials handling solutions, aftermarket products and construction equipment rentals in all or parts of 12 states and represent multiple forklift brands.