By Rob Shumaker of The Great Ape Trust

As you have certainly heard, Iowa is experiencing the worst flooding in recorded history - far worse than the massive flooding of 1993. The media is starting to compare this to Katrina. Entire towns, both big and small, may be completely lost. The damage to the state is staggering. Great Ape Trust has also been severely affected, but the orangutans, bonobos, and staff are all perfectly fine.

We started to have some minor flooding on our campus a week ago Monday. It rapidly accelerated, and we only had about 2 hours warning on Tues morning of the severity that was approaching. Our offices were evacuated, and everything except was furniture was removed. Trucks were being loaded as the axles were becoming submerged. All of the offices were completely destroyed. Our personal belongings (books, documents, data, etc.) and organizational records are safely stored, but not readily available at the moment.

By last Tues night, our entire 240 acres (except the ape buildings) were basically under water at varying depths. The water continued to rise over the next several days. All of our ape buildings were built higher than the 1993 flood levels, and we had contingency plans in place for this type of emergency. Most importantly, both buildings (especially the orangutan building) have significant vertical space. By late in the week, water was surrounding the ape homes and approaching the doors. It slowly trickled in once the height exceeded our sandbags. As the water levels in Des Moines rose, we had to aggressively manage the water in the buildings by pumping. Our construction managers advised us to keep about 6″-8″ inside the buildings to equalize the pressure on the inside with the outside of the buildings. We did that successfully until the river crested, and we then dealt with about 2′ of water inside the buildings for several hours.

After the crest the water started to subside, and we had dry floors in our ape buildings by Sunday night. By Monday afternoon, the buildings were completely cleaned and disinfected. Yesteray and today, life was basically normal for the apes, except for no electricity (we hope to have that back in a few days).

As you might predict, the orangutans were very sensible about the whole event. They moved to the upper 75% of the building, and watched us scurry around with pumps and hoses below. The boats outside appeared to be especially interesting for them. Despite the severity of the flooding, our ape buildings were only involved for about 2 days. During that time, the orangutans remained 100% dry, and had normal care (so did the bonobos). They missed some sleep since we were all working around the clock until the crisis was over. The orangutans showed absolutely no interest in getting anywhere near the water, and happily made their night nests about 25 feel off the floor. All of the bonobos were also very calm, and have come through the excitement perfectly fine.

The staff at the Trust has been nothing less than heroic. Words cannot describe their level of dedication and amazingly upbeat attitudes. The worst of this is far behind us at this point. We also received calls from Dan Cassidy at Omaha and the folks at Blank Park Zoo. Both institutions were ready to provide any assistance we required at a moment’s notice. They have been fantastic and highly valued colleagues. Luckily, we never reached the point of needing their assistance, but it was great to know that we could count on them.

Cleanup of our campus continues, but life for the apes is great. We face some significant challenges rebuilding our offices and planning for the future, but our entire staff is incredibly enthusiastic and optimistic. We are also very tired and looking forward to getting some well deserved rest over the next few days.

You can see photos and video on The Great Ape Trust’s website.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 4:55 pm and is filed under News & Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.