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Weekend
of rain floods buildings across campus
By
Daniel Linck Savino
Assistant Opinion Editor
Online Forty-Niner
Record-breaking
rainfall this past weekend had Cal State
Long Beach employees scrambling to clean
up and dry out buildings across campus.
Facilities Management ran pumps, mops and
floor cleaners all over campus Monday, and
life regained a damp and dirty semblance
of normalcy Tuesday morning.
Nearly
three and three quarters inches of rain
fell on Long Beach between Friday and Monday,
breaking two local records. The Veteran's
Administration Hospital also contributed
to the problem.
Tim
Ball, assistant director of engineering
for Facilities Management, said that clogged
drains on VA Hospital grounds were unplugged
by CSULB plumbers. Despite their efforts,
on Monday water poured across the fence
line at the north end of the VA Hospital.
The
water flowed into the Family and Consumer
Sciences building's lower level, covering
the entire building's floor six inches deep.
At the building's back patio, water was
waist-deep.
Chantelle
Lamourelle-Sims, manager of the child development
program Project Reach, found her FCS office
in shambles when she arrived Tuesday morning.
"I
did have mud up to about seven inches in
my room," she said. "I had to
throw out a whole bunch of stuff. I had
a heater that was ruined, and some paperwork
and books that I had to throw out. It took
me a couple hours, but I got it all cleaned
up."
Damage
was not limited to the FCS building. Water
flooded across State University Drive at
the West Turnaround and poured down a hillside
into Brotman Hall. Pressure from the water
badly warped a south-facing emergency door
in the hall. The floors in the Information
Technology and Enrollment Services offices
were still drying Tuesday.
Jack
Farrell, the director of Evaluation and
Records for Enrollment Services, found minimal
damage in his office Tuesday morning. The
receeding water left "just wet carpet,"
he said. "I didn't have anything absorbent
on the floor."
Even
though little personal property was affected
by water in Brotman Hall, the rains left
behind a distinctive stench. "It smells
like mildew," Farrell said.
The
potential health concerns raised by mold
were secondary to structural concerns in
the Social Sciences and Public Administration
building. In parts of the lower level, intersecting
walls had pulled apart and water came in
from floor and ceiling all weekend. Rooms
007, 010 and a wall in 009A were most visibly
affected. Tim Ball of Facilities Management
was part of a team that checked SSPA for
evidence of possible structural damage.
"The
load-bearing walls seem fine," he said.
"In the cross-members there's no sign
of settlement." He described, however,
that cracks in the shared wall between rooms
010 and 009A appeared to be caused by both
ends of the rooms sinking. Brad Ferris,
who is a structural engineer with the firm
Myers Houghton and Partners seconded this
analysis.
"The
cracking," Ferris said, "is due
to floor slab movement." This is not
a safety concern, he said.
"Concrete
is very stable, it takes a lot of abuse,
and it cracks. Cracking is very normal."
Leaking
water has been a long-standing problem in
SSPA. William Babcock, chair of the journalism
department, said that leaking has been "ongoing
for the past 30 years."
"It's
bad when it rains, it's very bad when it
rains a lot," Babcock said. "It's
abysmal when it's torrential. Everything
had water."
The
building was built below the grade, and
is seated in the local aquifer. "They
were absolute fools to build on this,"
he said. "I think we deserve better."
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