Nearly a dozen Campustown businesses and numerous pieces of city and university property were damaged or destroyed in riots lasting throughout the early morning hours Sunday.

Vandalism stretched through Campustown to the ISU campus and along Lincoln Way. Many in the district said the damage was the worst in the history of Veishea-related disturbances.

“It’s happened before, but not to this extent,” said Bob Guthrie, a 31-year veteran of the Ames Fire Department. “I’ve never seen this much damage done to business and city property.”

Eleven businesses were damaged, primarily with broken windows caused by thrown rocks, bottles and uprooted street signs used as spears. Dumpsters from several businesses, including Taco Bell, 2650 Lincoln Way, were rolled onto Lincoln Way, where their contents were burned. Plastic trash cans throughout Campustown were burned and melted.

Sixteen portable toilets — 12 in the Kum & Go parking lot, 203 Welch Ave., and four in the alley between Dairy Queen, 117 Welch Ave., and Subway, 113 Welch Ave. — were overturned, causing runoff to pour into the street and parking lots. Several picnic tables lining Welch Avenue were turned upside down.

Six city lamp posts along Lincoln Way and one on Hayward Avenue were torn down, and the meter box powering the Hayward Avenue and Lincoln Way traffic lights was damaged, leaving it out of operation until late morning. The lamp posts had an estimated value of $3,000 each, said Paul Wiegand, public works director for the City of Ames.

Three parking meters along Lincoln Way immediately west of Hayward Avenue were destroyed, and the change they contained was stolen. Traffic signs throughout the Campustown area were uprooted. At Ames Fire Station 2, 132 Welch Ave., one window was broken by a rock, and a fire truck door was dented by a rock.

On the ISU campus, limestone bricks from a retaining wall on the Lincoln Way side of Friley Hall were removed, broken and thrown into the street. Pieces of the bricks may have been used to break open parking meters.

A gutter ripped from the exterior of Friley Hall was found propped against a doorway among the strip of stores across Lincoln Way.

Along Welch Avenue north of Lincoln Way, numerous concrete trash cans were overturned, emptied and rolled up and down the street into Lincoln Way.

At least one CyRide bus stop sign was uprooted, and a parking sign was severely bent.

At the intersection of Union Drive and Welch Avenue, three stop signs were uprooted. Onlookers said rioters dumped signs into Lake LaVerne. A lamp post in front of Alumni Hall was also overturned.

In addition to property damage to area businesses and city and university property, the streets, particularly Welch Avenue, were heavily littered with garbage from the numerous overturned trash cans and broken glass from shattered windows, lamp posts and broken bottles.

Plate glass windows for both the US Bank ATM kiosk on the southwest corner of Lincoln Way and Hayward Avenue and the US Bank office, 2546 Lincoln Way, were damaged, though because of double-paned glass, no windows were broken all the way through. At the kiosk, the glass was shattered and visibly dented inwards.

Aaron Clayberg, a personal banker for US Bank, estimated the damage costs equaled a “couple thousand [dollars].”

Four plate-glass windows at Taco Bell, 2650 Lincoln Way, were shattered and had to be covered with plywood. By early afternoon Sunday, the restaurant’s drive-through was open, and Manager Randy Lucore said the dining room would probably be open Monday and definitely Tuesday. The damage was estimated at $4,000 to $5,000, he said.

Leedz Salon, 2536 Lincoln Way; Mayhem Collectible, 2532 Lincoln Way; People’s Bar and Grill, 2428 Lincoln Way; Vogue Vision, 223 Welch Ave.; and Jimmy John’s, 135 Welch Ave., all had plate glass windows broken, ranging from minor cracks to completely shattered panes.

Welch Avenue Trading Post, 105 Welch Ave., experienced serious damage when a street sign was speared through a window, coming to rest on copy machines inside.

Rioters then sprayed water from a hose attached to a nearby fire hydrant into the broken window and onto the copy machines.

General Manager John Crawford said the cost of the window damage could be in the thousands of dollars and the copy machines, which are leased from Xerox, could cost as much as $10,000 each. Crawford spent Sunday morning cleaning up the damaged area and sweeping the surrounding sidewalk and street. He said the store would open later Sunday.

Kum & Go, 203 Welch Ave., experienced exterior damage, with several plate glass windows shattered, but the interior was relatively unaffected, said Harold Horni, manager for the store.

“We got pummeled, and we have absolutely nothing to do with what transpired,” Horni said.

The store reopened early Sunday afternoon.

Pizza Pit, 207 1/2 Welch Ave., and Welch Ave. Station, 207 Welch Ave., suffered several broken windows on both floors of the building and an estimated several thousand dollars in damage. Both establishments opened Sunday afternoon with plywood over the broken windows.

“Falling glass could’ve injured people,” said Tom Northrop, owner of Pizza Pit.

Ames Police Cmdr. Jim Robinson said police were actively looking for individuals who committed criminal acts during the riot and encouraged anyone present to submit photos or video that would help in identifying those individuals.