Flooding Impacts Iowa Bookstores

June 19, 2008

This week's record-breaking flooding in the Midwest has left a good part of the University of Iowa under water, including the Iowa Memorial Union Book Store. Other Iowa City independents, Iowa Book and Prairie Lights Books, were spared from the flooding, as were booksellers in Des Moines and Cedar Falls.

Iowa Memorial Union Book Store assistant manager Doug Ward said via e-mail that the store is currently under five feet or more of water, but most of the inventory had been temporarily relocated to three separate storefronts in a downtown mall location not far from the University of Iowa's original student union. "We managed to get almost all of the merchandise removed from the location but not fixtures, Lozier, etc.," said Ward. "[It's] unfortunate since we just completed a total building renovation not even two years ago." The bookstore's temporary location will open on June 23 with summer school textbooks, student software, and a limited supply of other inventory, he added.

Because staff knew a flood was imminent they were able to plan an orderly removal of merchandise, but the amount of prep time they had quickly diminished. "The timeline kept shortening until Friday last we were told by the National Guard at 8:30 we had to be completely out of the building before 10:00," explained Ward. "We had previously been told 5:00 on Saturday and then 5:00 on Friday and then noon on Friday.

"Needless to say, organization took a backseat to speed. But we did well -- amazing in fact. The teamwork we exhibited is something I will not soon forget. We had parents in the store for freshman orientation volunteering to load and pull pallets to waiting semis!"

Classes at the University of Iowa have been canceled for the week, and the entire Student Union had to be vacated. "That includes a full hotel, a movie theatre, dozens of meeting rooms, and large scale event spaces," said Ward. "All departments have been relocated with an emphasis on working from home if at all possible. The university is dealing with shortages in power, water, steam, data, servers, and parking,"

Located uphill from the university, Iowa Book wasn't in any danger of flooding, said store office manager Pat Brice. However, because of the university closure and the current inaccessibility of the city, Iowa Book has been hit economically. The community at University of Iowa is "pretty devastated," said Brice.

Nearby Prairie Lights "is on high ground," said manager Jan Weissmiller. But since the bookstore is so closely tied to the university, business has been affected. Although relieved that staff members are safe and the building housing Prairie Lights hasn't been affected, Weissmiller is stunned by the scope of the damage to the area. "It's very surreal," she said. "The whole town is cut off, and there's no getting out of here right now. We had to cancel our readings, including one with David Wroblewski."

Weissmiller, and other booksellers who spoke with BTW, made note of the massive community effort that's gone into sandbagging and other rescue work.

About 90 miles north, University Book and Supply at the University of Northern Iowa was untouched. "It's pretty devastating on the north side of the river," said Rose Lorenz. "But not where we are." Although some of the store's staff members and their families were affected by the flooding, they were all safe. Lorenz added that the area had had a near miss with the previous week's deadly tornadoes.

The city of Des Moines was hard hit, but Beaverdale Books was "high and dry" and away from the northern part of the city where the levees were breached, said Beaverdale's Diane Gordon. And staff at East Village Books in Des Moines had expected to see some flooding, but the water level didn't reach their part of the city. "We moved everything up to a higher level," said bookseller Mary Krantz. "We were ready for the worst, but we didn't get it." --Karen Schechner

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