Mercy Hospital flood 'hero' nears retirement

Bob Olberding is ending his nearly 40-year career at Mercy Medical Center where it began - in the hospital's basement.

That suits him just fine as Olberding, 64, marks his final days as Mercy's plant operations director.

“I do love this place,” he says, showing where he started as a maintanence mechanic on Aug. 9, 1971, near his current office in Mercy's lower level. “I never planned to stay here. I thought it'd be a year or a couple years and move on.”

Luckily for the hospital, he stayed, managing the laundry service after four years as a mechanic and then directing plant operations.

Besides being one of Mercy's most well-known and beloved employees, says hospital spokeswoman Karen Vander Sanden, “he proved his worth in gold at the time of the 2008 flood.”

By all accounts, Olberding was instrumental in protecting the hospital's key operating systems as floodwaters rose in Cedar Rapids, which boosted Mercy's quick recovery from the flood.

“Bob knows the building inside and out,” says Rick Berry, Mercy's maintenance office coordinator. “During the flood, the hospital would've been in trouble without Bob.”

For that work, he was awarded an Iowa Hospital Heroes Award in 2008, but Olberding humbly suggests the honor belongs to everyone who helped.

“If it wasn't for the community sandbagging, I wouldn't have been able to save this place,” he says, his brown eyes welling with tears. “I'd like to thank every one of them.”

Olberding recalls the harrowing days of the June 2008 flood with a mix of sadness and pride.

Like everyone else in the city, he says, “we thought we had 4 feet to spare” as the Cedar River began to rise.

The afternoon of June 12, sewers began backing up and Olberding directed workers to plug all sewer lines.

“That's when we realized things were not going as predicted,” Olberding says, noting that it wasn't until later that he made it up to Lundy Pavilion, the hospital's glass-walled main entrance. “I came out here and there was water coming up Ninth Street and I thought, ‘holy cow.'”

Mercy, at 701 10th St. SE, about 10 blocks from the Cedar River, had lost power that morning with the rest of downtown Cedar Rapids.

The hospital's emergency power could have lasted six days, but as the water's crest progressively revised, the decision was made to evacuate. Patients were taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids and beyond.

“I didn't even know they were evacuating because I was keeping stuff dry” in the basement,” Olberding says.

A call also went out to save the hospital. At least 200 volunteers began sandbagging, building a 5-foot high wall of sandbags outside to protect the building's glass walls.

Realizing a counter-balance was needed, Olberding called for sandbags to be brought indoors, as well.

A human chain formed, with volunteers creating a 5-foot wall of sandbags inside to offset the weight from outdoors.

The glass didn't break, but water seeped through, prompting Olberding to direct workers to squeegee the floor.

All the efforts paid off. Keeping the basement electrical distribution system dry saved the hospital from being out of commission for an estimated six to nine months to replace that system. Instead, the hospital began reopening in weeks, after Olberding directed the relocation of the laboratory, pharmacy and other departments.

He stayed at the hospital four days straight with a total of about four hours of sleep, and then stayed at a friend's home in Marion so he didn't have to travel far.

Olberding typically arrives at work at 7 a.m., after making the one-hour drive from his home in Dyersville.

He plans to spend more time at home after he retires on Friday and work parttime at a golf course near home.

Olberding and his wife, Carolyn, have 10-year-old twins, Scott and Jackie.

He also has three children from a previous marriage.

His son, Nicholas, began working as director of information technology for MercyCare Community Physicians, extending the hospital's family connection that began when one of Olberding's sisters began working at Mercy in 1962.

Olberding, who attended Loras College in Dubuque and Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, didn't graduate, but “learned it all on the job,” he says.

A self-proclaimed Catholic boy, he helped on the family farm near Dyersville before working at John Deere in Dubuque.

Sister Mary Lawrence Hallagan was the hospital's administrator when he began work, followed by James Tinker and Tim Charles.

“The administration has just been great,” he says.

Olberding has been working on a transition with Jason Willis the past two years, an Iowa State University graduate who will take his place.

“He's got such an incredible legacy here and is such a well-respected person,” Willis says. “He remembers everything and knows every inch of the hospital. It's big shoes to fill.”