The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 8/1/07 Section: News

Piles of soaked books lie in the basement of the library after floodwater ripped through campus

No one would have guessed that an unobtrusive, peaceful stream running through the small city of Fort Collins would, in a matter of mere hours, become the source of miles of destruction.

Yet, 10 years ago, the usually tiny Spring Creek forced its way into local businesses and hundreds of homes in one night of tragedy.

CSU and its landscape were forever changed by the Flood of '97. While some buildings and property were simply replaced or renovated after the water subsided, much of the university's history was either ruined or lost.

Carmel Bush, assistant dean of Morgan Library, was one among the many witnesses who watched helplessly while the lower levels of the library filled with mucky water, consequently ruining more than 500,000 books.

"I watched the water come up the stairwell and then all of the alarms in the building started going off and the lights started flickering," Bush said. "I didn't know what to expect, there was a lot of uncertainty."

People outside of the building later told her the building looked how a ship must look when it's sinking.

"I felt a bit of sadness because all the materials downstairs were just submerged in water," Bush said.

While Bush was waiting out the storm in the upper level of Morgan Library, across the plaza, Amy Satterfield, the Collegian adviser at the time of the flood, was watching the same violent waters take hold of the Lory Student Center.

Mario Caballero worked with Satterfield at Student Media and was also on campus when the water came rushing in.

"The entire lower level of the student center was basically blown out by this wall of water that came through here from Spring Creek," said Caballero.

The wall of water that forced the doors of LSC to open completely occupied the basement levels within seconds.

"That's the thing about flash floods, they come dramatically, quickly and then they go away and you don't know where they are going to hit or how dramatic it's going to be," Satterfield said.

This time, the water came so quickly that it had already destroyed everything in the lower levels of the LSC before anyone could have prevented it.

"We were literally watching our computers and all our stuff float out of the windows," she said. "Student Media was completely under."

Continued...

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