By GREG OLIVER – Producer, SLAM! Wrestling
WATERLOO — It’s one thing to read about the flood damage to the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum, but it’s another thing altogether to witness it — and to smell it.
With the museum’s 10th annual “Super Weekend “under way in Waterloo, Iowa, fans — and writers — were allowed to wander through what once was a terrific exhibition of wrestling through the centuries.
The mustiness and the wet is impossible to describe; it must be smelled. Despite a dozen fans going, the muggy air outside made its way in, mixing with the stale air inside, a sad tonic of mildew, mold and broken dreams.
According to museum staff, the cleanup cost — ripping out damaged walls, furniture, carpet, gift shop merchandise — rang in at $60,000. And the museum was hardly the only place to suffer in Iowa. Others lost their homes as the various rivers across the state overflowed following torrential rainfall a few weeks back.
Museum staff believe that storm sewer backup is more to blame for the flooding at their location than the nearby Cedar River; buildings a block away barely got water in their basement, and others were destroyed.
An estimate Thursday pegged the repair cost to get the museum back up to what it was at around $250,000, which includes drywalling, a new furnace, and other parts of the building. That doesn’t include the replacement of display cases, merchandise or, perhaps most tragically, the priceless memorabilia and collectibles.
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