University Services Center floods, changes ‘normal routines’

The University Services Center’s south side flooded Tuesday

morning, damaging carpets, ceiling tiles and drywall in several

offices and inconveniencing several employees.

The flooding started around 5 a.m. when the main line that feeds

the building’s sprinkler system broke and flooded several offices,

said Sandy Sheahan, facilities manager for Facilities Management.

This forced several employees to relocate themselves and their

equipment to conference rooms.

“Anything like this is a big magnitude because it changes

people’s normal routines,” said Julie Birdsall, the USC building

proctor and chief financial officer for the CSU Research

Foundation, although she said the flood “could’ve been much

worse.”

The flood’s monetary costs were unknown Tuesday afternoon, but

the main damage was done to the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of

the south side, Sheahan said.

“At this point we really don’t have a good feel for what the

total damage is going to be,” she said.

The USC houses Academic Computing and Networking Services, the

office of the vice president for University Advancement, the

Regulatory Compliance Office and Sponsored Programs office, among

others.

The main offices hit by the flood were the ACNS office,

Advancement Services and Sponsored Programs.

“The water never got high enough to really get inside any of the

computers,” Sheahan said.

Ann Yates, the director of Advancement Services, said the

office’s main server was down but was in the process of being

brought back up.

Scott Baily, associate director for ACNS, said his office had

“an inch or so” of water during the flooding.

“It’s just a big mess, you know,” Baily said. “We’re extremely

lucky in terms of the extent of the damage. It’s more of an

inconvenience than anything.”