Iowa City's flood protections face marathon test

updated 2:53 p.m. ET June 16, 2008

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Record-high floodwaters that brought misery to some of Iowa's smaller river towns may have helped spare Iowa City from cataclysmic flooding, but the lingering high level of the Iowa River is giving the city's flood protections a marathon test.

The river's crest arrived early and lower than expected, possibly because of a number of levee breaches downstream that opened the channel, the National Weather Service said. But it still posed a lingering threat, and wasn't expected to begin receding until Monday night.

Hundreds of homes were evacuated near the river Sunday, though it wasn't immediately clear how many suffered damage. More than a dozen buildings on the University of Iowa campus had taken on water, but school officials said they believed others were protected.

Even as flood fears eased in Iowa City, the state's south and east prepared for new problems ahead for a string of towns along the Mississippi River.

Sandbagging was under way in Burlington, a key rail hub, to build the city's levee system and protect it from the river; 350 people had been evacuated.

Two more deaths were reported, bringing the state's death toll from flooding to five. A 35-year-old man apparently drowned in Iowa River floodwaters near Wapello, and a woman was killed near New London when her stopped car was hit by a National Guard bus involved in flood duty.

"It's likely that we will see major and serious flooding on every part of the southeastern border of our state from New Boston and down," Gov. Chet Culver said. "We are taking precautionary steps, we are evacuating where necessary, but that is going to be the next round here."

President Bush will visit the Midwest on Thursday to inspect flood damage, the White House said Monday as the president wrapped up a weeklong trip in Europe. White House press secretary Dana Perino said the places the president would visit had not been chosen.

More than 36,000 evacuated
Early Monday, more than 38,000 residents in 26 Iowa communities had been evacuated from their homes, said Kevin Baskins of the state Emergency Operations Center. Most of those — 25,000 — were in Cedar Rapids, and another 5,000 in Iowa City, he said.

Eight people were pulled Sunday from the flooded Des Moines River in Ottumwa after their boat capsized, police Chief Jim Clark said. The boaters were exhausted, cold and showing some confusion. Four were being treated for hypothermia, Clark said.

Sandbagging was under way in Ottumwa to protect the city's water treatment plant from the Des Moines River. Sandbagging was also being done in Burlington to build the city's levee system and protect it from the Mississippi River. Baskins said 350 people had been evacuated from their home in Burlington.

Also on the Mississippi River, the Army Corps of Engineers said Lock 12 at Bellevue, south of Dubuque, was reopened to river traffic on Sunday. But locks 13-25 remained closed, making 281 miles of the Mississippi from Winfield, Mo., to Fulton, Ill., inaccessible to commercial river traffic.

About 30 inmates from the Iowa State Penitentiary helped to sandbag in Burlington, a city of about 27,000. Already the city's four-story Memorial Auditorium was surrounded by water and some evacuations were under way.

In Iowa City, a town of about 60,000 where the Iowa River bisects both the school and the town, residents were cheered by the lower crest.

Donna Dubberke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Davenport, said one reason that Iowa City's troubles may have eased was levee bursts down river.

"Downstream there are some levees that have broken and we believe that some of that water is able to go off in those areas so that just provides a little more storage," Dubberke said.

The University of Iowa said 16 buildings had been flooded, including one designed by acclaimed architect Frank O. Gehry. Some buildings have as much as 8 feet of water inside.

"I'm focused on what we can save," University of Iowa President Sally Mason said as she toured her stricken campus. "We'll deal with this when we get past the crisis. We're not past the crisis yet."

Cutbacks at hospital
All elective and non-emergency procedures were canceled at the university hospital, and non-critical patients were discharged, Mason said. Nurses were brought in from elsewhere to ensure all emergency shifts would be covered.

Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey said 500 to 600 homes were ordered to evacuate and hundreds of others were under a voluntary evacuation order through Monday morning. The city had no estimate of the number of homes that had actually flooded.

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