Hilton Coliseum is now “an island” with an indoor pool.
Three nights of torrential rains have turned central Iowa -- including parts of the Iowa State campus in Ames -- into a natural disaster. Floodwaters dumped at least six inches of rain on parts of the state overnight, which has swept cars off roads, people stranded and left emergency crews with their hands full.
Joe Riding, an Altoona councilman who owns a golf course, Terrace Hills, on the banks of Mud Creek, said it was swollen to about 10 times its normal size.
“This morning it was about 100 yards wide, instead of about 10 yards wide,” he told msnbc.com. “In the middle, it’s a rushing torrent.”
Iowa State football players were stacking sandbags around the football stadium early Wednesday morning in an effort to stave off the flooding. Meanwhile, it was too late for Hilton.
Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly saw the drowned court himself.
“It was floating,” Fennelly told Des Moines Register sports writer Randy Peterson. “It’s really bad what’s happening; it’s sad. This is my 19th year in Ames. I can easily say that it’s the worst flooding I’ve ever seen.”
(H/T: Eammon Brennan)
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