Iowa Heritage Digital Collections
State Library of Iowa

Stacy Dykema and Liz Ford interview about the Midwest floods of June 2008, Iowa City, Iowa, September 30, 2008

Stacy Dykema and Liz Ford interview about the Midwest floods of June 2008, Iowa City, Iowa, September 30, 2008

Title

Stacy Dykema and Liz Ford interview about the Midwest floods of June 2008, Iowa City, Iowa, September 30, 2008

Description

Interview with colleagues Stacy Dykema (37) of Freeport, Illinois and Liz Ford (41) of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Liz (age 41) and Stacy (age 37) discuss how the Iowa flood affected their animal shelter. They talk about taking in rescued animals, relocating to a fairground barn, and the future of their non-profit.
First week of preparations, relocating to fairgrounds. Could only have it five weeks (00:01:00) -- Stacy - an animal care technician for ten years (00:02:50) -- Using preparations from the 1993 flood. June 7, first day of sandbagging (00:03:39) -- Moved adoptable cat room first - least stressed out to move, friendliest. Great volunteers. The "core group" on call 24/7 (00:05:22) -- Moving dogs in Animal Control trucks. Animals handled it well, even without air conditioning (00:07:40) -- Volunteers started a drive for more funding. Donations from all over the country. Emergency grants. American Kennel Club, Purina (00:11:06) -- Evacuees - bringing animals to them. Animals had to be rescued from flooded homes (00:14:16) -- Missouri National Guard - taken into the shelter by boat. Ruined vaccines and medicine (00:16:59) -- Specific animal stories - one cat who tried to run away (00:20:45) -- Animals sensing stress from humans (00:27:15) -- Red Cross building on the fairground too - being able to see their animals. How many people needed their help, from all walks of life (00:28:30) -- New location - five miles south, not ideal. Not as clean, bad air flow (00:32:30) -- Want to build a new shelter - don't know if they can go back to the old space (00:35:40) -- Question of money, planning. People can't just "stop by," UI students without cars can't get there (00:36:43) -- One animal that couldn't go back to her own home after the flood. Decision not to euthanize any animals, working 16-hour days (00:39:00)

Creator

Dykema, Stacy; Ford, Liz

Publisher

StoryCorps (Project); University of Iowa. Libraries. Digital Research & Publishing

Date

2008-09-30
2008-09-30

Rights

Educational use only, no other permissions given. U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this item. Commercial use or distribution of this digital object is not permitted without written permission of the copyright holder.

Relation

Iowa City Flood
Flood Oral Histories

Format

mpeg
00:42:07

Language

English

Type

Sound
Oral histories (Document genres)

Identifier

DDA000499.mp3
https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/

Collection