The flood changed so many lives in so many ways.

My own reflections often revolve around three vivid images that continue to play themselves over and over in my memory.

The first is of the hundreds (thousands) of people who helped us sandbag, move books and try to protect our campus. The second is of our daily “war room” meetings where we kept updated and apprised of the status of the river and planned our daily responses. And the third is of the raging river itself, first with full-grown trees traveling at high speed down the river and then of water actually flowing over the Park Road bridge and into so many of our buildings.

The images of people are those of courage, determination and, at times, exhaustion. The images of the river are of nature reclaiming what was “hers” to begin with and doing so with a forceful dignity that could not be denied.

For myself, I knew almost immediately that my priorities and goals as president had changed radically during those days of high stress and drama. Humans are highly resilient and flexible, especially in the face of extreme challenges. Good leaders are especially resilient and flexible, and I hope that when history is eventually written, that there will be more positive to have come from these challenges than we can imagine even today.