Jul 1, 2008 12:00 PM

Last month’s floods in Iowa affected several fitness facilities, some of which are cleaning up and trying to resume normal operations.

The Rockwell Collins Recreation Center also was unaffected structurally but had to close showers and stop offering towel service because flooding of some of Cedar Rapids' water substations caused its mayor to order water conservation that shut down the club's laundry facilities, says manager Mike Duffy.

On Campus

The University of Iowa in Iowa City was completely shut down the week of June 16. Well, almost completely shut down.

Two of the three campus fitness facilities were open for limited hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., providing a way for students and faculty to relieve some stress, says Harry Ostrander, the recreational services director for the university. Those two facilities did not have full power, and the buildings had no steam for hot showers, Ostrander says. The third facility closest to the flood damage was shut down, but none of the facilities suffered building or equipment damage, he says.

The Iowa River, which rose 31 1/2 feet (9 feet above flood stage), cuts through the heart of campus.

“You couldn't get around,” Ostrander says. “Every bridge was off limits. Roads were covered with water. It was very difficult to maneuver anywhere.”

The main concern for Ostrander and the university's administrators is the $70 million wellness recreation center that is under construction. The center, which is adjacent to the Iowa River, was scheduled to open in April 2010, but administrators have pushed back that target date by a month or two because of the flooding, Ostrander says. The underground tunnels that bring utilities to the building flooded, he adds.

“We did take in a little water and had to pump it out of that site, which may have some impact on us in our final design of that facility,” Ostrander says.

The four-diamond softball complex, including the main field used for intercollegiate athletics, was under 10 feet of water, Ostrander says. He estimates the repairs to the softball complex as well as the outdoor track could reach $2 million. That doesn't compare to the damage to the rest of the campus, in which 20 buildings flooded.

“The overall impact on the university is going to be out of sight,” he says.

Lending a Hand

Fitness facilities that did not suffer damage were affected by the floods, too, but in a positive way. The wellness/recreation center at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls is located away from downtown Cedar Falls and potential flood areas, and it did not sustain any damage, says Tim Klatt, associate director for Northern Iowa's wellness and recreation services. However, one of the gymnasiums on the campus served as an American Red Cross relief shelter.

The Gold's Gym in Davenport, IA, opened its doors for flood victims to take showers in its locker rooms. Two of those people were so enamored with the club that they bought memberships, says general manager Brock Reed.

“Part of our responsibility is outreach and support, whether it's to our members or whether it's to our nonmembers here in our community,” Reed says. “If they were in need, we wanted to help provide them anything that we could to help the situation with the flooding.”

Ys from Omaha, NE; Sioux City, IA; and Des Moines have called the Y of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Area office to offer their help and resources, including collecting toys for the nursery that had to be gutted. The Y of the USA has also been in touch with the Cedar Rapids branch to help.

About 200 members of the National Guard found a temporary home in Cedar Rapids in the Rockwell Collins Recreation Center's 30,000-square-foot court area.

“Since the Guard was on rotating shifts, you could find some troops sleeping at any one time during the day,” says Duffy, who adds that many Guardsmen got in workouts and checked e-mail at the club.

Of the 6,000 members of the rec center, Duffy says he received only a couple of complaints about services being interrupted.

“It was great to see how most all of our members were in support of what we were doing,” he says.

Despite the offers of help to and from clubs of all types, the main help needed, now that the flooding has receded, may be financial.

The Cedar Rapids Y is in the process of applying for grants from local agencies and the Small Business Administration (SBA). The Y also is working with FEMA.

Back at the River Plaza Athletic Club in Waterloo, Nelson says he has inquired into assistance from the SBA and FEMA but does not expect to receive federal money.

“It's not encouraging, lets put it that way,” says Nelson, who adds he may turn to his local bank for a loan.

Nelson hoped to be back to “normal” later this month. Little by little, the club is returning to what it used to be.

“We're going to take advantage of this and try to make something good of this,” Nelson says. “I just don't see any other way to go about it. We're starting to see the light.”

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