Water main break causes flooding in Woodruff Hall
A water main broke near Coffee Cottage and Woodruff Hall on Feb. 28 that flooded the basement of Woodruff Hall.
According to Keith Molinari, director of Ppublic Ssafety for the Castleton campus, the broken main was first noticed around 7 a.m. and disaster relief(s)workers were called in to take over after the attempts were made using sandbags to limit damages.
“We needed to contact Castleton PD,” Molinari said.
He described how it took time to stop the water because it was connected to the town water which could not be shut off by campus workers.
Workers in offices affected by the floods were offered the chance to work from home until new temporary offices were set up for the return of students the following Monday.
From the safe offices of the second floor of Woodruff, Meredith Fletcher, Special Projects coordinator, took charge of planning the temporary office restructuring.
“Our goal was to keep everyone close to each other,” Fletcher said. She mentioned how important it was to plan a restructuring that would keep the morale high in challenging times.
“We still wanted to be accessible for students,” said Joann Austin, consultant for Financial and Registration Services whose office was one of those affected during the flood.
Austin mentioned the importance of keeping easy access for students when relocating offices, but also to keep that sort of sense of family well known on Castleton Campus.
Molinari confirmed that everything should be back to normal as soon as the disaster relief team makes the space safe again for the staff to work in. No specific date had been set as of last week but he said work should not linger for too long.
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