Iowa State University vice president for business and finance, Warren Madden, gave the state board of regents and estimate today on the damage to campus buildings from the recent flooding. He says they are still in the process of assessing the extent of the damage to the heating and electrical equipment in some buildings, but the best estimate of damage is between 40 and 50 million dollars.
Madden says that covers clean-up, restoration, repair and some mitigation. Madden says some of the damage is being covered by insurance, and the rest would be covered by FEMA.
Madden says FEMA has indicated the amount of statewide damage will make this a disaster where the federal government pays 75% of the cost and the other 25% is shared by the university and the state.
Madden says Hilton Coliseum and the Scheman Building are the two that remain closed at this point, and they are trying to work through proper channels as they move ahead with repairs. For example, there’s a lot of electrical equipment that was flooded in the lower levels of Hilton.
Madden says they are in talks with FEMA about their assessment as to whether they can move the equipment to higher levels. He says they want to be able to make the changes to be able to qualify for federal reimbursement — while they also want to move things along to get the building back open. Madden says Iowa State is talking with federal and local officials about actions to take to prevent future flooding in the area. He says they have to be careful to consider any impact on the residents around the Ames campus.
Madden says when they talk about building berms and dikes, people to the east of campus worry that those will just move the water to a different area. Madden says they don’t have the hydrological information to know if that is what would happen and need to get some factual data. He says officials from the university and the City of Ames want to get some of that data to be able to make some informed decisions. Madden made his comments during the Board of Regents meeting in Cedar Falls.