After touring the flooded and partially reopened University of Iowa campus on Monday, two leaders of the state’s Board of Regents said they were saddened by the devastation but thankful for the thousands of volunteers who had helped prevent an even worse catastrophe.
The board’s president, David W. Miles, called the experience of flying over and slogging through the sodden campus “humbling.” Speaking at a taped news conference on campus, he thanked the students, employees and community members who spent days piling sandbags and retrieving books, art, and equipment from the lower floors of buildings in the days leading up to the catastrophic flooding.