Rainy weather dries up business

[Steve]

We got walloped with rain up here in the Northeast. It also is hurting a lot of businesses.

Rainy weather dries up business (http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=495738&category=REGION&newsdate=6/29/2006) - "The rain is killing us," said Bob Hale, owner of Bob's Rental Center in West Sand Lake. Customers have been canceling rentals of tillers, backhoes, excavators and other equipment for do-it-yourself landscaping projects they've put off.

With twice the normal rainfall this spring, including a string of weekend washouts, Hale is having the worst season since he went into business in 1978.

[Steve]

And on the flip side.


Rainfall keeping many afloat (http://www.roanoke.com/business/wb/wb/xp-71459)- "My phone has been ringing off the hook," said Joe Lanun, whose landscaping company, Prestige Acres Landscaping, not only keeps lawns neat but also installs drainage systems, repairs gutters and removes fallen branches.

So far, he's received a wide range of calls ** mostly to clean out gutters or drain flooded lawns ** but he expects the work orders to keep coming in once the storms subside. Downed trees and fallen branches will need to be removed, and the rainfall is also likely to stimulate plants and grass.

"We'll have to maintain that growth," Lanun said, adding that the mowing side of his business has suffered over the last couple of months.