Iowa dentists respond to flood disaster with optimism and courage

“I will guarantee you that within five years everyone involved in this whole thing will say, I’m better off than I was when this happened,” said Dr. John W. Helscher, II, a non-member dentist who opened his two-operatory practice in Washington, Iowa, to tripartite member Dr. William Wever, whose rural Columbus Junction practice flooded in waters ravaging the Midwest and rolling south.

But such distinctions give way to the sense of community and Hawkeyed optimism you hear from those violated by wind and water.

Take Dr. Lori Mason, a young dentist just getting the town’s only practice off the ground and running when a tornado packing winds of more than 200 miles an hour (E5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale) devastated Parkersburg, the new home she and her husband had lived in but eight weeks and the practice.

“But they’re starting to build our home again and we have a temporary motor home coming that we’ll have for a little over two months,” she told the ADA News with an air of optimism. “All our records were saved so we can start rescheduling people when we get the motor home (a mobile dental clinic on loan from the Mercer County, Ill., health department).”

There are neither numbers nor measures for the dental loss in Iowa and other Midwest states hit by pre-summer storms. The Cedar Rapids flood inundated at least one dental practice and three dental labs, according to dentists and dental suppliers who were awaiting the water’s retreat to assess the damage. The University of Iowa College of Dentistry posted a news bulletin at the Web site www.dentistry.uiowa.edu announcing suspension of normal activities the week of June 16-20. A large portion of the University of Iowa campus was under water. Three Cedar Rapids dental laboratories were under water, said Bob Weimerskirch of Patterson Dental Supply, Inc.

“We were able to gain access to the office today and scoured it for any salvageable items,” Dr. Christopher Tyler told us in an e-mail update on his Cedar Rapids general practice. “We do have flood insurance and the outlook for the practice is favorable. A group of orthodontists in a neighboring community offered their satellite clinic to us exclusively as long as we need it. That, plus the possibility of obtaining a mobile dental unit will help make the interim easier to deal with. We will just have to wait for the water to recede and assess the damage.”

Loss speaks to so many measures, professional and personal, patients, staff, lost productivity. Some dentists have flood insurance and others don’t. Pick your measure and talk to Dr. Gregory Gilbaugh of Coralville, who has lost three practices to fire and water since the flood of 1993. “This is a difficult situation,” he said. “We have no flood insurance. This will take us a year to recover. We’ve got people willing to help. It’s a great adventure, and we’re going to look forward to it. I’ve got 13 (staff) families relying on my decisions here.”

Dr. Gilbaugh’s dental supplier and office manager speak of his faith and his concern for the livelihood of his office staff. Meeting with the staff on a sunny Monday morning at a Coralville coffee shop, their first get-together after sandbagging and evacuating the practice the previous Thursday with the help of patients, dental supply representatives and family members. Dr. Gilbaugh opened a Bible and read, “Then I said to them, You see the trouble we are in.Come let us rebuild the wall.We his servants will start rebuilding.”

Patterson’s Brad Carmody described the evacuation of Dr. Gilbaugh’s office. “I had three of my folks there and it was just buckle down, pick an operatory and disassemble. We bagged everything not bolted down.” A plumber’s supply company offered trucks and transport and most of the dental equipment was in off-site storage within hours. X-ray equipment, archived charts, forensic models and “quite a bit of the supplies” were lost to the waters, said Katie Ruzek, office manager. “We sandbagged by 6 Thursday night and 12 hours later there was water over the sandbags and in the building. We went back in and retrieved the remainder of the patient records.”

Weeping softly, she expressed concern for Dr. Gilbaugh and his family. “We do understand that loss is part of life. We still are thankful for what we did not lose. Our faith brought us through loss before.”