iowa floods

While watching some of the flood coverage on the local news the anchor woman said the University of Iowa was telling "non-essential employee's to stay home." Some questions came to mind, what must it feel like to be considered a non-essential employee and to be told to stay home? Why does the University of Iowa have non-essential employee's anyway? If you are a non-essential employee should you worry about having a job when the flood waters recede? Considering the situation, is it the Professor of English who was non-essential or the maintenance worker? If the maintenance worker is the one who is essential in this case, is that somehow reflected in the pay scale?

Wellman has been unaffected for the most part by the flooding. Wellman traces its history to a town called Wassonville built along the English River. The town moved south to the top of a hill after Wassonville was flooded several times in the mid-1800's. If the town was still there it would be flooded because the English River is well out of its banks.