The ISU campus avoided harsh effects of the past two days’ rainfall, and luckily only a handful of places on campus were affected.

Les Lawson, manager of facilities planning and management, said that as of 4 p.m. Thursday, the southeast intramural field and the women’s soccer field were completely underwater and Veenker Memorial Golf Course on Stange Road was partially covered.

Recreation Services kept an eye on water levels in the area surrounding Lied Recreation Athletic Center, and the parking lot was eventually underwater by early Thursday morning.

Lawson said he didn’t feel there was a potential for more flooding in the next days unless Ames gets more rain.

“There really isn’t a lot you can do other than sandbag doorways and things like that,” Lawson said.

“With the weather that is predicted, we’re not doing anything right now, but we have things on standby.”

The areas that are flooded will need much care to repair them to their original condition, but this may not happen for several days.

“We’ll wait for the water to go down,” Lawson said. “Aeration will happen and possibly reseeding. It depends on how long the water sits on the grass.”

None of the roads on campus were closed because of flooding, but there is a system in place to notify students and faculty if it should ever become an issue.

Sgt. Elliott Florer of the Department of Public Safety said the system to notify people of blocked roads depends on who is in charge of the building area. It’s usually a joint effort to get the word out.

“The only area we really had to barricade off was Lot 100,” he said. “All of our other roads are open so it really hasn’t affected us on campus.”

Florer said it doesn’t look as if there will be any other areas on campus that will be at potential risk for flooding.

The city of Ames wasn’t as lucky, with many parks closed because of flooding or standing water.

Nancy Carroll, director of Ames Parks and Recreation, said both Stewart Smith and Brookside Parks were under significant amonts of water Thursday. Additionally, North River Valley Park, which houses a softball complex, was also underwater.

“The good news is, [the water] has leveled off and it has started to recede,” Carroll said.

Carroll said the city was able to forecast the potential areas of flooding by using modeling. This measure uses historical data and takes into consideration the areas that have been affected in past floods.

“We knew yesterday about 4 p.m. that it was going to hit the low-lying areas,” she said. “We were not caught off guard and we had people working into the early morning hours to get prepared.”

Carroll said the parks that are underwater are barricaded at the main entrances, but it is hard to block the area completely.

She encourages citizens to use common sense when looking at these areas and consider their own well-being and safety.