In the event another damaging flood, similar to the one in 1993, was to occur in Story County, several ISU students would know how to properly deal with the emergency.

Approximately 50 incoming ISU students attended a disaster relief training session at Reiman Gardens on Saturday.

The students learned the logistics of volunteer response in the wake of any type of disaster.

The meeting was arranged by Destination Iowa State and designed to foster a better relationship between students and the Ames community.

“I wanted to come to this because I thought it sounded interesting,” said Tony Staley, freshman in pre-business.

“I want to learn to survive a disaster.”

The program featured filling sandbags and building of a retaining dike in Reiman Garden’s parking lot. Students were also prepped on leadership roles in the event of any disaster. The students learned to be team leaders, set up staging areas and train and direct volunteers.

Representatives from the Disaster Volunteer Response Program led the meeting. The relief program, which is part of the Volunteer Center of Story County, was created to respond to disasters in Story County.

Betsy Nelson, relief program committee member, said the goal of the response program is to train and educate volunteers. This meeting allows students to become trained and hopefully be available if a disaster occurs, she said.

“We can always use more trained volunteers,” Nelson said. “This gets our data base fuller of contacts.”

The first half of the meeting featured educational videos and games to get the students more familiar with each other. A presentation was given on volunteer response and organization. The last half of the meeting was spent learning the intricacies of sandbagging.

Sandbag training is more complicated than it sounds, said committee member Paul Ackerson.

The bags must be filled to about 35 pounds and the weight should not vary, he said. In the pass line people should alternate facing each other to make the passing of the bags easier. A shallow trench should be dug and the sandbags firmly stamped down to ensure they are secure. The base of a sandbag dike should be three times larger than the height. If these measures are undertaken, the sandbag dikes should provide some protection to property, Ackerson said.

If the procedure is not followed, the dike could collapse or break.

“In West Des Moines during the floods of 1993, several dikes collapsed because they were poorly made,” Ackerson said. “All the work went down the drain. This training helps with the preparedness of volunteers.”