Storm waters leave behind trail of damage on campus

Physical Plant staff are working extra hours to clean up damage inflicted by two days of heavy rain on campus and are preparing for new thunderstorms and gusty winds forecast for Thursday.

Pat Daly, director of Physical Plant, said about 25 buildings have suffered flood damage since Tuesday night, and his staff has 200 additional sandbags ready to deploy as new storms approach. “We’ve had substantial damage, and there’s a lot of dirt in our buildings,” he said.

The damage includes:

• Morrill Science Center IV, where a transformer blew up when about 1 foot of water flooded the room where the equipment is housed. Replacement of the transformer will cost $100,000. Both Morrill IV and Morrill II lost power Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.

• The Murray D. Lincoln Campus Center, where water flooded the concourse level and the ground floor. Meredith Schmidt, director of the Campus Center, said more than 2 feet of water, mixed with dirt from a nearby construction site, surged through doors on the east side of the building. At one point, 6 feet of water filled the elevator shafts, she said. The Campus Center auditorium was largely unaffected, but many meeting rooms and offices suffered water damage and are in the process of being cleaned up and dried out. The escalator to the ground floor remains out of service.

• Boyden Gymnasium, where floodwaters caused a concrete floor to heave.

• Four trees came down during heavy winds and rain, including two on North Pleasant Street.

July 24, 2008.

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