Haunted house attraction returns for scares following 2016 flood

By Aysiah Keller on October 20, 2017

Cedar Valley’s Panic Park is open for the season after closing due to the flood of September 2016 that caused two feet of water that caused damages inside the building.

Panic Park’s Halloween season left volunteers devastated. “Feedback from the community about not having that Panic Park really pushed us to get in there and clean the place up for the new season,” Mike Hendrickson said.

Hendrickson is a member of the Black Hawk County Conservation Board which brings Panic Park to the Cedar Valley every Halloween season. Though the park was closed last Halloween, Hendrickson ensured that it did not put a damper on this year’s attendance. “Checking over the number of people to come to panic park this September has been very comparable to past years,” Hendrickson said.

Hendrickson said this year has been mostly going smoothly. “The only thing that has really been hurting us this season has been the weather,” Henderson said. “The rain has rained us out two weeks now, and no one wants to stand in the rain.”

Volunteers Zoe Lenton and Nathan Hanson both work at Panic Park’s behind the scenes, where they get to switch costumes every night that they volunteer at the park. “It was very fun to do, but it is a little stressful trying to figure out what told you would like to pursue,” Lenton said.

“This year has been very fun because we added more rooms, and having zombie laser tag still be around is quite fun,” Hanson said.

Zombie Laser tag is an attraction at Panic Park that allows guests to play thrilling laser tag against volunteers dressed as zombies.

Volunteer members encourage people to visit Panic Park and encounter the fright that they create. “This weekend we’re going to get steamrolled because the weather will be nice,” Hendrickson said.

Panic Park is located at 5932 North Union Road, Cedar Falls, and will be open for the rest of the Halloween season on Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., and on Halloween from 7 p.m to 10 p.m. Admittance to the park is $15 per person.