As flood waters started to recede back into the banks of the South Skunk River, Kim Brooks and his team from ServiceMaster pulled into Iowa State to start recovery efforts.

After days of rainfall, water from the South Skunk River reached a flood level of 18.1 feet.

The waters broke through glass doors on the west side of Hilton Coliseum, Lied Recreation Athletic Center and swept through the Scheman Building.

The remnants of the flood left a foul-smelling layer of mold, sand and dirt in the 17 buildings that had been directly affected. At least 20 more were without power.

Brooks and his crew cleaned up the mess.

“We do this stuff all over the country,” Brooks said, “from the Pentagon after 9/11 to hospitals.”

Brooks joined ServiceMaster Catastrophe in 1994 as an owner-partner. He has previously worked in large-loss commercial insurance.

Brooks currently has crews in Nashville and Memphis as well.

The company was “originally founded as a moth-proofing company in 1929 by … Marion E. Wade,” according to the ServiceMaster website.

When ServiceMaster was officially incorporated in 1947, they only employed half a dozen employees and generated $125,000 in revenue.

The corporation is now a leader in the service industry, employing 50,000 people with an annual revenue of $7.8 billion, according to the website.

Brooks said his job is moving from one large location to another. Brooks currently lives in Wichita, Kan.

“Basically, what we do is we come in and stabilize the environment to be able to be reconstructed,” Brooks said.

Servicemaster’s job is to work on mucking out the location and cleaning it, Brooks said.

His team then works on drying out the location and putting it in a position to be cleared by Environmental Health and Safety.

They use machines that help control atmospheric pressure in order to dry out the humidity.

Brooks said ServiceMaster’s work at the university has been completed, but the time frame for their services is up to the university.

He said the university now has to look at its construction efforts to make sure it doesn’t need ServiceMaster’s services from an environmental standpoint.

So far, Lied has been reopened.

Warren Madden, vice president of business and finance, previously announced that the track inside Lied will need to be replaced eventually, but it has been cleared to use during this season.