The Daily Iowan’s staff is covering the flooding that has damaged Iowa City and is inching its way toward campus. Classes remain in session as emergency workers sandbag to keep campus buildings in the path of the flood free from water.

Waiting for the deluge

The view from the sky isn’t pretty.

The Iowa City area continues to be inundated with river water, quickly transforming many areas into turbid swamps. And viewed from a small propeller plane, the fate of Iowa City and its ever-expanding river looked grim.

Just south of Iowa City, the Iowa River has overwhelmed the flat farmland. From above, it looked like the Everglades, with islands of trees dotting the muddy water. It was hard to determine the river’s actual path.

Water stood at 712.12 feet at the Coralville Dam spillway at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, and officials expected it to cascade down the cement slope around midday today, despite 20,000 cubic feet per second worth of water being let out of the dam. The water has proved to be unpredictable - the Army Corps of Engineers had originally said the Coralville Reservoir would spill over early Tuesday morning.

“As the water gets higher, it gets harder for us to predict,” said John Castle, the Coralville Reservoir operations manager for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Full Story from The Daily Iowan

Daily Iowan aerial photos

Daily Iowan photographer Lindsey Walters captured images of the flooding from the air. Much of the damage has occurred on city and private property, but some water is edging closer to campus.

Walters’ seventh image shows the water’s proximity to the Iowa Memorial Union and her 12th photo in the slideshow shows flooding near a large residence hall.
For all of Walters’ photos at The Daily Iowan