Looking Back: Six Weeks of Devastation
For six weeks, things kept getting worse.
It started on a Sunday when a tornado ripped through Parkersburg and New Hartford, killing nine people and injuring 70 others. It was May 25, 2008.
Two weeks later, flood waters overwhelmed Mason City, topped a levee in New Hartford and surged past the Saylorville Dam near Des Moines and the Coralville Reservoir.
Then another tornado killed four Boy Scouts and injured 48 people in Monona County. Flood waters destroyed Cedar Rapids, damaged the University of Iowa and breached a levee in Oakville.
Other parts of the state felt Mother Natures’ wrath that year, but most of the damage ended when the Iowa River finally fell below flood stage in Johnson County on July 7.
When it was over, 2008 left Iowa with the most devastating series of natural disasters in state history. That year, 85 of Iowa’s 99 counties were declared Federal Disaster Areas, and the state suffered an estimated $10 billion in losses.
Thousands of Iowa’s historic properties and districts, museums, galleries, cemeteries and archaeological sites sustained severe damage.
During the National Alliance of Preservation Commission Forum coming up July 18-22 in Des Moines, we’ll hear from Tricia Sandahl of Mason City and Jeff Hintz, formerly of Cedar Rapids, who will discuss their experiences negotiating mitigation treatments and specific recovery projects.
In Mason City, the city and other groups relocated the Egloff House, a historic Art Moderne home damaged in the flood. They also completed an architectural survey and oral history of the East Park Place neighborhood, which was decimated by the flood itself and the buyout of damaged properties that followed.
Sandahl, a planning and zoning manager for Mason City, advises historic preservationists and elected officials to make sure their mitigation projects are beneficial and important to their communities.
“One of our marquee projects was relocating the Egloff House,” she said. “It was difficult and expensive, and we didn’t expect the logistical challenges. But we saved the house, created three district nominations and pulled positives out of something that was devastating and built value for Mason City.”
In Cedar Rapids, innovative mitigation measures helped nudge preservation efforts along, said Hintz, who was a city planner there from 2013 to 2017.
“I arrived after the flood, but the sheer scale of the damage was probably the biggest challenge,” he said. “There was so much, and some of the things we did had a wider impact than others.”
For example, Hintz points to local historic district signage, kiosks and markers placed throughout the city that show where important events, persons and architecture are located.
Projects also included development of the city’s first historic preservation plan, historic surveys of the community, booklets and an interactive mapping database of historic properties. Other projects focused on outreach through speakers and events that engaged the community and educated people about preservation.
While Mason City and Cedar Rapids faced different challenges, Sandahl and Hintz make it clear they share one common purpose.
“When all these different agencies and people come together to work on mitigation projects, you have to make sure you’re doing the things that bring the most value and benefit to your community,” Sandahl said. “You have to let people know because once a historic property or district is gone, it’s gone forever.”
— Jeff Morgan, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs
