ISU prepares to clean up campus for fall semester

Floodwaters at Iowa State University continued to recede Thursday as leaders prepare to pump out and clean up the mess left behind.

Most of Wednesday's flooding impacted “non-academic, non-laboratory” buildings like Hilton Coliseum and the Scheman Conference Center, ISU spokesman John McCarroll said.

McCarroll said one of the university's top business professors estimates the damage is in the six figures.

ISU officials say a top concern is the city's water problems and how that may impact university operations.

“That's why the university is officially closed today,” McCarroll said Thursday.

McCarroll said faculty and staff were encouraged to stay home Thursday as part of the university's effort to minimize use of the water system.

ISU is preparing for the arrival of about 9,000 students who plan to live on-campus during fall semester.  Many of those students start arriving on Saturday.  ISU says they are warning students to abide by the water advisories in effect.

“The water pressure hopefully by the time they start moving in will be improved over what it is today,” McCarroll said.  “They'll be cautioned not to drink the water, only bottled water or from some other source but not the city of Ames.”

McCarroll said university leaders met Thursday morning to decide if water concerns warranted pushing back arrival dates, deciding that was not necessary.

Classes should start on schedule, he said.

”Hopefully the clean-up will continue at a good pace,” he said.  “Most of the classrooms, residence halls were not affected by the flooding so I don't foresee any interruption of normal activity there.”

One activity that could be impacted by flooding is a large freshman rally set to be held at Hilton the end part of next week.  McCarroll said if ISU is not able to clean it up in time, the event might be moved to an alternate location.