[Publib] Floods, not just in Florida

[Andy Barnett]

It is good to be prepared for water even if you are not in a coastal area. 
Here in Central Wisconsin, we are a long way from any ocean or even a Great 
Lake. Our local river is well controlled by dams and we are on a hill 
overlooking it. Disasters don't have to be community-wide to be a major 
problem. Ours was all internal.

One night after closing, the cleaning crew was working in the restrooms. 
When they flushed a toilet, it snapped off the wall, leaving the pipe to 
gush water onto the floor. Turns out the 30 year old welds had been 
improperly done and all our toilets were ticking time bombs.

Then our problems began. The shut off is not in a handy closet, but located 
in the drop ceiling on the floor below, where even plumbers have trouble 
finding it. The building wide shut off is in what used to be a janitor's 
office, but is now a storage room. The cleaning crew had no idea where it 
was, even though they use the room. Our director and assistant director 
were both out of town for the week. By the time the cleaning crew reached a 
staff member who knew where the shutoff was, the pipe had been dumping 
water into the upper level for over 30 minutes. Imagine a large hose on 
full blast and double it.

The good news is that we have a concrete floor and the water never reached 
a stairwell. No structural damage. The bad news is that the water was as 
much as two inches deep in spots, covering about 7,000 square feet of 
carpet with small lakes. Where there were data/electrical conduits or 
pipes, the water cascaded to our lower level, where all our historical 
materials were kept. Did I mention that we have wood shelving? The usual 
array of hanging cables and power strips? Plus it was approaching midnight.

Without making this into a "How do you manage" segment, suffice it to say 
that it is worth the effort to plan for such an event. While there is much 
we will do differently next time, it helped to have the phone numbers at 
hand. It helped to have innovative staff willing to think outside the box 
(who knew septic tank cleaners made emergency housecalls with giant water 
sucking vacuums?). Our website (housed off-site) had information up the 
next day and we were back in service within a week.

This could have been a major disaster, with ruined shelving, moldy carpets, 
shorted out PCs, lost one-of-a-kind historical documents. It was bad enough 
as it was, with over $10,000 in cleanup costs. if you think that you are 
immune to water damage, take another look at all the pipes in your building.

Andy Barnett, Assistant Director
McMillan Memorial Library, 490 East Grand Avenue, Wisconsin Rapids WI 54494
abarnett at scls.lib.wi.us   (715) 423-1040   Fax (715) 423-2665