The Flood of '93 ISU Stays Afloat

The summer of 1993, a summer etched in Iowan's memories for years to come. [thunder] On Thursday evening, July 8th, rain started to fall in central Iowa. Not an uncommon occurrence this Spring. Iowa had been especially wet, and in the last two months the region had not seen more than two consecutive days of dry weather. The ground was saturated, rivers and streams were high, although far from flooded. Still ISU had been on flood alert for a month. Predicted heavy rains, north of Ames, prompted officials to take further precautions against the expected rise of Squaw Creek. Some students weren't so prepared. "We were watching a movie when the storm warning sounded. So, I of course went outside to look at it and came back in and everything was fine. And then about 15 to 20 minutes later we noticed water coming in under the front door so we got towels in front of it. And then we were watching TV again, flipped on the bedroom light and it was coming in the bedroom and look back over here and it was coming in here. It was coming in the kitchen, it was just coming in every room. That point we just got everything we could, everything up as high as we could, and went and stayed at a friend's house." By 7 o'clock the next morning, Squaw Creek which had been 3 feet deep, had risen to more than 16 feet. Stange Road. 13th Street. 6th street. Lincoln Way. South 4th. Elwood Drive. The campus was virtually cut off from the city of Ames. President Jischke cancelled classes and advised ISU employees to come to work only if it was safe to do so. Two hours later by 9 A.M. the Squaw crested at a record 18 and a half feet. More than 11 feet about flood stage. Little Squaw Creek was a raging river. Flooding a third of the campus. The winds that Thursday night had come as fast and as hard as the waters. Gusting up to 77 mph they tore through Veenker memorial golf course and Pammel court, although no tornadoes were reported others weren't so sure. Miraculously no one was injured, either here or anywhere throughout the entire area of flooding on campus. Student families were relocated to dormitories and other student apartments. 8 of the 9 units hit, would be demolished as part of the University's planned removal program of the WWII housing. More than a mile away on the opposite side of campus, concrete retaining walls in Cyclone stadium were literally blown out on the NW and SE corners. Oddly enough, Jack Trice field was untouched. The major damage however came from the unprecedented water levels in Squaw Creek. As much as 10 inches of rain had drenched it's watershed upstream. Downstream at Veenker memorial golf course, water completely covered these bridge pylons. The rush of water inundated bridge approaches, and covered 30 to 40 acres of tees, greens, and fairways with a half inch of silt and clay. The computerized sprinkler system was covered. The Maintenance shop took on 6 feet of water. Across the road, University Village residents watched helplessly as the water rose into the Administration building and 40 student apartments. ISU's electrical generating plant escaped the tide, but only because workers had spent most of the night sandbagging the cooling tower pumps. If the cooling towers went down, the generators would have been turned off. However, underground steam and condensate lines were completely submerged for several days. The steam tunnels beneath the intramural fields serve the ISU center and College of Veterinary Medicine. Repair and replacement of the utility system may reach 2 and a half million dollars. At the nearby, Recreation Athletic facility, sandbagging prevented all but 3 inches of water from entering. Damage was confined mainly to the track and artificial turf. More significant damage was to the oak floors of the nine handball and racketball courts. No student residences were damaged at the Maple Willow Larch complex, however 4 feet of water covered the commons and food service areas. 10 dump truck loads of contaminated food had to be carted away. All food related equipment had to be cleaned, restored to operation, re-cleaned and sanitized. Concrete floors beneath the walk-in freezers had buckled under the tremendous water pressure from below. Mechanical and utility rooms with their connecting tunnels to other buildings and the complex sustained extensive damage from total immersion. The Iowa State Center was hit hardest by the flood waters with estimated damages of almost 4 million dollars. Although it's located on a flood plain, the Center had been designed to withstand water levels at least a foot over the 100 year flood. However, Center workers were not complacent. They sandbagged all Thursday night, but as water quickly rose above record levels it was difficult to keep up. At Scheman's Continuing Education Center it rose a foot and half over the concrete flood retaining walls. Breeching the front doors and floor retention doors around the building. Water and muck filled the entire basement and 4 and a half feet of the ground floor. Including the first 4 rows of Benton auditorium, and a 9 foot Steinway Grand piano. ISU Center offices in Scheman were moved to the lobby of CyStevens auditorium on higher ground. There they could dry out and continue to reschedule or move to other locations approaching center events. Both Stevens and Fischer theaters escaped the surging waters and became emergency headquarters for center operations and a command post for sorting out disaster priorities. One priority was Hilton Colosseum, Center workers had built an impenetrable dam at the East loading ramp, and it held. But early Friday morning tremendous water pressure undercut it, blowing out the ramp floor and forcing it's way onto the Colosseum floor. 14 feet of water filled the the 3rd row of the park. Althetic director Jean Smith called Hilton the world's largest indoor swimming pool. In lower level storage areas, mechanical, athletic and entertainment equipment were totally submerged; including the basketball floor and ice making equipment. Not long after the flood, total damages to the University came to an estimated 7.7 million dollars. Later estimates will appear as officials dig deeper into the problems. Efforts are underway to minimize flooding prospects in the future. All affected building were either above the 100 year flood level or had been designed to withstand waters a foot above the 100 year flood. But people along the Squaw, the Skunk, the Des Moines, the Missouri, and the Mississippi rivers will testify that the flood of '93 was substantially more than the 100 year flood.