Campus Plays Major Role In Fighting Historic Flood

Campus Plays Major Role In Fighting Historic Flood

CAMPUS PLAYS MAJOR ROLE IN FIGHTING HISTORIC FLOOD

It’s no secret that the university closed for nine days because of the recent record-breaking flood on the Red River (reaching 40.82 feet a week ago Saturday, topping the previous mark of 40.1 feet set in 1897.) It’s caused all kinds of scheduling problems for the rest of the semester (check www.mnstate.edu for details). Here’s a summary of just how effective the university was in helping during this community crisis:

• Nemzek Hall became the major volunteer center in Moorhead, opening Sunday (March 22), a day when 900 volunteers showed up. But on Monday when students returned from spring break, that number ballooned to more than 4,000 and it continued at that level throughout the week. During the whole flood emergency, more than 20,000 individuals were registered at Nemzek for volunteer work. Most of the time they were bused to dike-building sites around Moorhead. Later, when the city needed more sandbags, the city made Nemzek an extra bagging site, supplementing the major sandbag production site at MSCTC,
• Mothballed Holmquist Hall was set up in less than a day to house an average of 200 emergency volunteers coming in from the National Guard, Civil Air Patrol, public health agencies and law enforcement.
• The Emergency Operations Call Center for Moorhead and Clay County operated out of McLean Hall 169. Physical plant and IT staff put together 54 phones and computer terminals in less than a day—it’s still operational. They received more than 3,000 calls on the first couple days of operation, staffed mostly by MSUM people. A campus community call center was also set up to field calls from students, faculty and staff.
• Sodexo, the campus food service, produced 2,400 sandwiches for volunteers during the first days and about 7,500 meals a day for flood volunteers and the Red Cross the rest of that week.
• Requests for assistance from MnSCU campuses were answered: security officers from Minnesota West Community College, MSU Mankato, Bemidji State University, Rochester Community & Technical College and Minneapolis Community & Technical College, and a firefighting team from Lake Superior College.
• Chancellor James McCormick visited the campus twice during the flood with senior staff and offered the resources of the system office.

For more details and stories, visit the flood news and information site on the university’s Web home page.