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Volume 6, Number 16 —

The Student Voice of University of Prince Edward Island

Flood Strikes Duffy

by David MacKinnon

On the night of the 21st, the Physics labs and three offices were flooded when water pipes in the Biol- ogy Department froze and burst. The pipes froze when high winds that accompa- nied Saturday night’s storm forced open the windows to the fourth floor Biology lab and filled the room with snow. The snow and cold air caused water in side the’ pipes to freeze and expand, bursting the pipes and cov- ering the floor with water.

The water seeped down into the next floor and

flooded the offices of pro- fessors Jammu, Wannacott, and Madan, as well as the Electricity and Magnetism lab. It then preceeded to flood the two classrooms di- tectly below them and fi- nally ended up in the first year Engineering room.

Professor Ed Johnson of the Biology Department was one of the first people on the scene. He arrived about 9:30 on Sunday morning to feed the animals and get things teady. for Monday classes when he found the room flooded. “When I came up the stairs I could hear water Tunning down the Physics stairs, and I didn’t know what was going on.”

He went to the lab ex- pecting to find that some of the fish tanks might have flooded the lab. He ar- nived at the lab at the same time as Security Officer John

cEntee and they went in to find out what had hap-

pened. When they entered

the room, they found that all four of the window were °pen and the three pipes on ‘op ofthe first and second benches had burst from the cold, :

Meanwhile, Don Coles,

Head of Maintenance, and

Bobby MacAuley, General Foreman, were passing by at about 11:00am on a routine inspection after the snow- clearing operations earlier that morning. As _ they passed Duffy, they saw the water coming out through the leakholes in the bricks. They went in to investi- gate and discovered some- body from Security was al- ready there.

When they had the wa- ter shut off, they contacted President Eliot, Science De- partment Chairman Lawson Drake, and Buisness Man- ager Murray Stevenson who then contacted the Insur- ance Adjuster.

Both Mr. Coles and Mr. Johnson agreed that the problem was most likely

that the latches that hold the windows shut had be- come worn with use. In the storm, the wind would have caused the windows to vi- brate enough to loosen the latches and allow the win- dows to fall open. It was later found that two more windows had opened on the third floor, probably for the same reason.

Mr. Coles told of a similar occurence that took place three years ago, but that the latches had been tightened in since then. It appears that they had

_ loosen again after that time.

It was suggested by several people that the latches could be moved to the side so that in the event of a storm, the vibrations from the wind

would cause the locks to go on tighter.

They amount of dam- age did not seem to be great in terms of equipment lost. Harold Borstell, Lab Instructor for the Physics Department, indicated that most of the equipment had been repaired. Mr. Coles stated that the damage seemed to be confined to the ceiling tiles and electri- cal circuits.

It could have been worse. If the power had gone out, the circulating pump would

have shut down and the wa- ter would have had time to freeze and break the pipes. This would have meant the building would have been without heat for at least the first day of classes. This had happened in the storm three years ago.

Most of the damage seemed to be suffered by the offices of professors Jammu,

Wannacott, and Madan. Of

Thursday, February 2nd, 1989

these three, Madan’s had suffered the most damage. He had lost many notes that had to be rewritten or re- typed which would cost him a great deal in terms of time lost. He also suffered damage to his books and other materials. But, they said that much was saved through quick action. Plas- tic bags were thrown over furniture and books, and many things were moved out until the water had stopped dripping down from the ceil- ing and everything had been cleaned up. ©

On the floor below them, Don Gillis and his son helped to clean up the wa- ter that had gathered in the classrooms on the sec- ond floor and in the first year Engineering classroom. Thanks to their diligent ef- forts, many people were able to return to class on Mon- day morning without know- ing that anything had taken place that weekend.