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Remember the big hailstorm that went through Eldora? Seems like that was quite a while ago. Sounded kind of bad, probably created some hassles, but one would assume that everything’s back to normal now.

One would be mistaken.

Out in Urbandale at Paul Davis Restoration – where there is no Paul Davis, so don’t ask for him – they’re still sending employees up to the Hardin County town every day.

“Every west- and north-facing window in town was knocked out” in the Aug. 9 storm, said John McCarthy, the general manager. Furniture got soaked, and carpets received enough bits of broken glass to render them unsuitable for bare feet. Roofs were battered and siding destroyed.

Just the kind of problems that Paul Davis Restoration franchises exist to fix.

Add in the other Iowa disasters of the past year and a half, and it’s been a busy stretch for the operation that co-owner Ed Gochenour got into four years ago. The former Iowa Hawkeye linebacker didn’t have a dream of cleaning up messes; he met a fellow in Omaha who called the play. “If he had been flipping burgers,” Gochenour said of the man who became his business partner, “I’d probably be flipping burgers.”

However, disasters aren’t really the key to the industry, according to Gochenour. It’s the squishy sounds of flooded basements and the pungent aroma of kitchen fires that have produced a strong, steady increase in business every year.

The company is working on 26 projects in Eldora, out of about 55 it took on in August, but any average day sees 40 to 50 projects in the hopper, Gochenour said.

At the headquarters just west of Interstate 35/80, workers load damaged goods into bays on one side of the aisle, then dry them and clean them and generally make them good to go before placing them in bays on the other side of the aisle.

Brian Griffin used to haul a lot of that material in from around the state. Last spring, he closed Griffin Transfer and Storage and merged Griffin Services, his moving company, with Gochenour’s operations.

Now Griffin is in charge of business development, which means contacting roughly 45 insurance agents per week.

That’s one way to find out about Paul Davis Restoration, a nationwide network of more than 200 franchises. Then there’s the hard way. “We got a call from an insurance adjuster at 10 a.m. (the day of the hailstorm), saying ‘the game’s on,'” Gochenour said. By 3 p.m. or so, he had a team up there, and the stunned folks of Eldora got their first look at the company logo.

Gochenour’s employees don’t carry nail guns; they bring in subcontractors and coordinate the work. After weeks of keeping things moving in Eldora, Gochenour and his team hope to wrap up that theater of operations by Nov. 25.

The larger business goal is to add an office in Iowa City within the next few months, complementing the ones in Sioux City and Mason City. Eventually, Gochenour wants to have a presence in Davenport and Waterloo, too.

Gochenour learned discipline at the feet of former Iowa Coach Hayden Fry and the now legendary staff that included future head coaches Kirk Ferentz, Bill Snyder, Dan McCarney and so on.

He learned sales skills by selling cancer insurance door-to-door in rural Nebraska.

It has all paid off so far with nicely growing revenues, but here on his home field, Gochenour is about to face more competition.

Des Moines native Craig Mettille, an owner of ServiceMaster franchises, is acquiring a larger ServiceMaster presence here. He still lives in Cedar Rapids but plans to spend a couple of days a week in Greater Des Moines.

One of ServiceMaster’s specialties is doing the same thing Paul Davis Restoration does.

Will both companies thrive? Will there be enough misfortune to go around?

Bring on the chimney fires, throw in a few frozen pipes, and we’ll find out.