Kenneth Schumacher and Chuck Swanson interview about the Midwest floods of June 2008, Iowa City, Iowa, October 1, 2008

Kenneth Schumacher and Chuck Swanson interview about the Midwest floods of June 2008, Iowa City, Iowa, October 1, 2008

Interview with employee and supervisor Kenneth Schumacher (59) of Manning, Iowa and Chuck Swanson (55) of Cherokee, Iowa.

Chuck Swanson (age 55) talks to his employee, Ken Schumacher (age 59) about the Iowa flood of 2008 and its effect on Hancher, a performing arts space in Iowa City where both Chuck and Ken work.

Chuck remembers being told about the flood. Rescheduling and moving. "Ceasing normal operations." Canceling a performance, getting a dance group to the airport (00:01:14) -- Chuck and Ken remember Friday morning before the flood. Getting locked out of the building by the police (00:07:00) -- Next week, being told to stay away from offices. Beautiful weather during flood. Staff met up during days of flood. Getting news of a big donation. Calls from artists and people all over the country. People wanting to help but nothing they could do (00:09:50) -- Ken talks about difference of being flooded out of theater versus an office. Watching the water rise. Eerie quiet (00:13:21) -- Chuck talks about getting a call from supporter about Hancher being on the news - press had approval to get tour of Hancher. Chuck went in before any of clean-up. Stench, darkness (00:17:16) -- Clean-up process. 180 or 200 people inside cleaning. BMS clean-up service. Supervisor who had been through other catastrophes was truly impressed by Iowa clean-up response (00:19:35) -- Lisa from the box office - rash from the flood water. Danger of contaminated water (00:21:30) -- Stage curtain - extremely damaged (00:22:49) -- All instincts were wrong (00:23:29) -- Chuck remembers getting artwork out of Hancher. Carrying out the portrait of Virgil Hancher (00:23:59) -- Ken - concerns about getting everything restored for opening night (00:27:00) -- Chuck on finishing up the season in different spaces. Frustration about not knowing when they will be back in (00:28:30) -- Chuck talks about the year before the flood - of brining Joffrey ballet on a huge tour. Various artists - events of quality and stature. 35-year anniversary such a contrast to being flooded out (00:31:20) -- Ken talks about dealing with companies and breaking the news that the performance will not be at Hancher. Making adjustments (00:33:41) -- Chuck on role of Hancher in Eastern Iowa community. Hancher as a recruitment tool (00:35:55) -- Worries about employees coming back or not (00:39:00) -- Ken is Production Manager, Chuck is the Executive Director. Each give a brief description of what they do (00:41:00) -- Hopes for the re-opening of Hancher (00:42:00)

Schumacher, Kenneth; Swanson, Chuck

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

2008-10-01

2008-10-01

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.

Iowa City Flood

Flood Oral Histories

mpeg

00:43:22

English

Sound

Oral histories (Document genres)

DDA000502.mp3

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