This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Hawkins: The southwest end of the building where the cargo area is... the water line break is presumably somewhere in that area, fairly close to the building. It was able to flow and get under the building, under the foundation, and then travel from there. Wash out part of the foundation from under the wall, and then it actually flooded into the building in that location.
Lopez: The city noted the building is functional, but looks like a construction zone with access limited to the northeast entrance. What does checking in for a flight or picking up a rental car actually look like in that space right now?
Hawkins: Well, we've moved everybody. So Pioneer Car Rental and Aleutian Air are both in that same ticketing area. They've put up a Visqueen wall between there and what was normally the passenger waiting area, and so that's all screened off. Passengers will come in that northeast door, the single door, and they can do their business at the counter as normal. Your baggage, when you are departing, your baggage comes into the terminal, gets handled just like normal checked in. And then, when you're deplaning, returning to Homer, your baggage doesn't come into the building, because the baggage claim area is part of the space that was affected. And so your bags, you'll pick them up at the gate out in the parking lot.
Lopez: Aleutian Air and Pioneer Car Rental are back inside, and with Alaska Bus Company... How are those businesses managing to operate around the ongoing cleanup efforts?
Hawkins: The initial response is finished, and the cleanup from that mess is complete. The next thing is, the engineers will be coming back next week and doing more work to survey the affected areas, the foundation with ground-penetrating radar. And so what we're interested in knowing is what, if any, damage has been done to the foundation of the building.
Lopez: Is there any final things folks need to know about before they head out to the airport this week?
Hawkins: The only restroom facilities we have are porta-potties out there. The restrooms had to be shut down to the water's off to the building. There's no water in the building at all, right now, for obvious reasons. And one other thing to close on, actually, is just how much we at the city appreciated everybody's patience and willingness to help. Bald Mountain Air opened their doors to allow Aleutian Air to work through their building so passengers could still get on their flights here in Homer because the airport terminal was closed. It was such a mess. And Bald Mountain Air really stepped up. It's just another very positive thing of why we live in Homer.
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