Rain causes flooding in 3 Old Admin rooms, Crites’ basement

A combination of un-forecasted rainfall, removed downspouts, and a broken machine resulted in flooding in Old Admin and Crites buildings during midterm break.

According to The Weather Channel website, about half an inch of rain fell and caused flooding in three rooms in Old Admin and in the basement of Crites.

Other than paint bubbling on walls, the rooms are back to normal, Dale Grant, vice president of finance & administration, said.

The flooding in Old Admin rooms 331, 241, and 131 happened because the downspouts outside the building were removed, Grant said.

According to Grant, the spouts were removed because they’ve been leaking for years, so the school contracted with a company out of Scottsbluff, to fix the downspouts. After they were removed, the machinery the company was using broke so they couldn’t finish the job. Because of missing downspouts and missing section of gutter, the company will be responsible for the damage, Grant said.

In the first floor computer lab, room 131, one computer and one scanner were damaged due to the water. The school will not have to pay for those replacements either. For more information on the computer lab, see related story on page 3.

Based on the average desktop computer cost, Grant is estimating the computer replacement and the scanner replacement will cost less than $2,500.

The company has not given a specific date for when they will have its machine back up and running to finish the job.

“We’ve been kind of pushing them because if we get a lot of rain again it’s going to have the same results,” Grant said. “It’s in their own best interest to get it fixed.”

The flooding of Crites was a result of the construction in front of Crites. The silt plugged the drain, allowing the water to run inside the building. The contractor will also be responsible for that damage.

There were a few other places where windows were left open so there was a little water found in a few other buildings, Grant said. But those buildings were not carpeted so the cleanup was much easier. Grant noted a small leak in the hall between High Rise and the Gold Room and another in the new Rangeland Lab Building.

On Monday night, the water was found in Crites Hall and the water was found in Old Admin Tuesday morning. And the custodial staff cleaned up the water in the buildings, Grant said.

There is a $25,000 deductible on CSC’s property damage insurance.