The flood of June 2008 wiped out the Arts Campus at the University of Iowa. As bad as the damage was, it could have been even worse. Thanks to the efforts of the sandbaggers, we had additional time to move equipment. Thanks to the efforts of students, alumni, and friends and relatives of Iowa Percussion, we had the muscle to move equipment.
Volunteers worked for several days to save everything from the large and cumbersome to the small and delicate instruments that are essential for a contemporary percussion program. After working to exhaustion on Thursday, the plan was to move the last of the equipment the next morning; however, the doors of Voxman were locked early Friday due to the rising water. Even so, the percussion studio Steinway, the lion’s roar, and (worst of all) the Tom Davis wobble board were the only percussion area instruments lost to the flood.
On a number of occasions over the summer, percussion majors moved instruments from the second floor of Voxman to our various new locations for the Fall semester — they did this without benefit of an elevator or loading dock.
And who was the first university music ensemble to perform after the flood? You know it — The PanAmerican Steel Band played a noon-time concert on the Iowa City Ped Mall on July 1, just weeks after the flood, to show that the Arts are alive and well at the University of Iowa.
October 2008
For Fall semester, the percussion ensemble is rehearsing at West High School. Other percussion classes, lessons, and practice rooms are in Clinton Street Music 6. Sometime in November, Iowa Percussion expects to move to the former Art Museum. The fate of Voxman Music Building and Clapp Recital Hall is still unknown.
On October 4, Iowa Percussion reached out to Iowans who have gone through much more than we have. PanAmerican Steel Band embarked on a one-day “Disaster Tour,” performing in Parkersburg, devastated by May’s tornado, and New Hartford, hit first by the tornado then again by the June flooding.
The Summer of Flood
June 10 - Water starts to rise behind Voxman.
Water threatens the Hancher footbridge.
Working 24/7 in Clapp lot to produce . . .
sandbags . . .
and more sandbags . . .
. . . and even more sandbags.
June 14 - You can’t get to the Arts Campus . . .
on Riverside Drive . . .
. . . unless you have a canoe.
If only VMB had been built up here.
Clapp Recital Hall
Voxman Music Building
Lot 16, reserved parking . . .
. . . for ducks.
VMB from across the Iowa River
The river side of VMB (it’s all river side).
River tops levee behind VMB June 15
Whitewater over Park Road Bridge June 15
“Keep Out” (the academic version)
June 24 - after 18 inches of water . . .
muck and mold is everywhere . . .
even in lockers.
The lion’s roar succumbed . . .
as did the percussion studio Steinway . . .
and DM’s groovy shelves . . .
. . . but the TA office looks pretty normal.
Clapp and Voxman on life support . . .
good air in - bad air out.
Swimming in the Clapp stage pit.
Comfy Clapp seats ruined.
Dixon Hall . . . really, it is.
Mountains . . .
of equipment . . .
and instruments . . .
removed from . . .
Voxman . . .
by the BMS remediation crew.
Tom and Pat percussion carts were lost . . .
but The Cage still stands.
DM’s office, finally as clean as he likes it.
Dixon Hall . . .
. . . looking into room 1060.
Harper Hall
The remains of Professor Davis’s blue wall.
What DM did on his summer vacation.
Equipment stored . . .
and more equipment . . .
. . . waiting to be moved . . . somewhere.
And from the ruins . . .
rises Iowa Percussion . . .
. . . the first to make music after the flood (July 1 “Arts are alive and well” concert).
September: Our new digs — Clinton Street Music 6.
Less space than Voxman . . .
. . . but we use it well.
PanAmerican Steel Band’s October 4 Disaster Tour:
First stop — the brand new auditorium at Dike-New Hartford Schools. Everyone wanted to see the pans.
Future percussion majors at Dike-New Hartford.
Happy to be on the road.
Second stop: The parking lot of what used to be Aplington-Parkersburg High School.
As the sun sets in Parkersburg, PanAmerican Steel Band is just getting warmed up.
Find out the rest of the story in Museum 09.
