Iowa Heritage Digital Collections
State Library of Iowa

Sally and Kenneth Mason interview about the Midwest floods of June 2008, Iowa City, Iowa, September 30, 2008

Sally and Kenneth Mason interview about the Midwest floods of June 2008, Iowa City, Iowa, September 30, 2008

Title

Sally and Kenneth Mason interview about the Midwest floods of June 2008, Iowa City, Iowa, September 30, 2008

Description

Interview with husband and wife Kenneth A. Mason (49) of Concord, California and Sally Mason (58) of New York City, New York.
Kenneth (age 49) and Sally (age 58) discuss the floods on The University of Iowa campus. Sally had been the President of the University for less than a year when the floods began.
Sally had been President of University of Iowa for less than a year when it happened (00:00:50) -- First talked about a potential flood in March, because of winter weather. Realized it was a reality [flooding] - a week before the crest. A "rollercoaster" of preparations (00:02:12) -- Hardest part of this: Friday the 13th of June. Seeing the auditorium go under water. Early morning flood meeting (00:04:15) CBS Morning Show interview. Seeing a new building under water (00:06:48) -- Kenneth - seeing the community come together. Filling sandbags with everyone. Hearing stories from students - a man was supposed to have his wedding in the Student Union. Moving the Museum of Art collection, 21 grand pianos, the Bookstore (00:08:30) -- Tuesday - phone call from Governor Culver. Sally said she needed more help - Culver sent the National Guard. Thought water had missed the library, but two inches got in. Power plant went down. Temporary boilers put in. Need to keep the campus heated (00:12:10) -- Water plant was spared - very important (00:18:50) -- Sally handling media requests - optimism, opportunities (00:19:30) -- 1.1 million sandbags - worried about how to get people to go home. Able to send sandbags to other communities (00:21:00) -- Gathering donations and support from alumni. Letters from all over the world (00:23:00) -- Arts campus most affects - old buildings around the city now housing art departments (00:26:40) -- Learning to "live with the river." 100-year and 500-year floods. Scientists and engineers able to give predictions. Hydraulics lab, hydrologists working on it (00:30:00) -- Director of the National Science Foundation came, energized the science departments (00:33:47) -- Building, rebuilding (00:36:31)

Creator

Mason, Kenneth A.; Mason, Sally

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
00:36:55

Language

English

Type

Sound
Oral histories (Document genres)

Identifier

DDA000497.mp3
https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/

Collection