While the flooding in western Iowa is just getting to its peak, officials at Iowa State University say their recovery process is close to being completed from flooding last year. I.S.U. vice president, Warren Madden, updated the Board of Regents on the effort in Ames.

Madden says they have now substantially completed all of repair projects and restoration work from the flood that hit in August of last year. He says they just have some work left on the track in the Lied Recreation facility. Hilton Coliseum which is the site of Cyclone basketball games and other sports, flooded despite efforts made to protect it after it flooded in 1993.

Madden says new panels have been installed that they believe will prevent the building from filling up with water a third time. Madden says they’ve tested the panel by putting water outside of them and he says it only took a paper towel to clean up the water, so he says the university is “feeling reasonably good” that it won’t flood again.

The panels are also being used in the nearby Scheman Building, which hosts many conferences and other events. Madden believes the things they have done in the last year will minimize the damage if the waterways around the buildings overflow again.

“We believe if we have another water event, we are prepared to manage that within the campus structure as we go forward,” Madden said. Madden says the final cost of the flooding will be around 30-40 million dollars — which was below the initial estimate of 40 to 50 million.