Spring Break
Flood causes power outage in U. Crossings
By: Aditi Dubey
Issue date: 5/18/07 Section: News
Originally published: 5/18/07 at 3:42 AM EST
Last update: 5/18/07 at 3:42 AM EST
Originally published: 5/18/07 at 3:42 AM EST
Last update: 5/18/07 at 3:42 AM EST
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According to College Park's facilities manager Sylvester Dargba, the basement of the building is below ground level so ground water occasionally seeps in to the building. Usually, there are electric pumps in the basement that pump this water out continuously. Dargba estimates that some of these pumps must have become corrupted and stopped working at some point earlier this week, causing the water to accumulate in facility's switch gear room located in the basement.
"There was about two feet of water which shut down the transformer," Dargba said. "We got a call at 5:50 a.m. when the power went out. The water had probably been there for two to three days since no one had gone down there to check."
According to a memo sent to the President's Cabinet by Senior Vice President James Tucker, at 6 a.m., Drexel Facilities Management was notified that there was a power outage at University Crossings. Facilities Management went to the facility to investigate the problem since Drexel houses students and operates classrooms within the building.
Drexel's Emergency Response Team responded to the incident.
"Drexel responded to it and College Park is now handling it," James Katsaounis, director of communications for the division of Student Life, said. "When we found out that there was a power outage, we immediately went to assess the situation."
Katsaounis added that the flood did not damage any of Drexel's leased academic space.
Classes that were held in University Crossings were cancelled for the day due to the flooding.
The building sump pumps were also not working and Drexel's Facilities Management used College Park's equipment to pump out the water. Maintenance crews were not able to enter the switch room until all water is cleared, for safety reasons.
The memo also states that College Park, which operates University Crossings, did not have their facilities maintenance crew onsite to handle the problem until approximately 9 a.m. On Wednesday afternoon, Drexel's Facilities Management handed over the situation to College Park to manage.
