Campus Soggy, but Coping Well After Series of Strong Pacific Storms
Rex Graham | January 25, 2010
Alonso Noble takes care of fallen trees and limbs, northbound lanes of Campus Point Dr. south of Voigt Thursday.
The fourth strong Pacific storm in a week pounded the UC San Diego campus Thursday, with up to 6 inches of torrential rains and winds up to 60 mph. The storm toppled trees, flooded sections of at least eight buildings and transformed the normally precipitation-challenged campus into a soggy mess. Sidewalk steps at Scripps Institution of Oceanography became cascading waterfalls that resembled “fish ladders.” Scripps was also inundated with mud from a government construction site and water rushing in from La Jolla Shores Drive, which for part of the day resembled a river.
“The Facilities Management department, which is significantly short-staffed due to state budget cuts, received the highest call volume on Thursday that the department had ever taken in a seven hour period,” said Russell Thackston, assistant vice chancellor of Auxiliary and Plant Services. “Facilities Management managers and even non-FM personnel pitched in to answer phones and help almost every student, staff and faculty member get the assistance they needed.”
Facilities management personnel, filling sandbags — 35 tons worth, done in the landscape services yard. Filling took place before and during the storms: this photo taken during the storms.
The campus’s difficulties were minimized because Facilities Management crews had earlier prepared for the winter rains by cleaning storm drains, repairing dozens of known roof leaks, trimming hundreds of trees and making other preparations for the winter rains.
All day Thursday, staffs with Facilities Management and Environment, Health & Safety were busy everywhere on campus. Custodial Service has been busy cleaning up wet floors and carpets across the campus. A few campus staff members even got temporarily stranded on roof tops when gusts of wind blew over their unoccupied ladders. Safety is the campus' top priority and while crews got soaked, there were no injuries.
The Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences was one of the hardest hit buildings; its lower auditorium filled with rainwater faster than pumps could remove it.
Other buildings that were at least partially flooded included Cellular & Molecular Medicine East and West, the Center for Magnetic Recording Research, Engineering Building 1, Humanities and Social Sciences Building, Pacific Hall and Peterson Hall.
While the Student Services Center leaked, pre-storm preparations limited those leaks significantly.
Alonso Noble and Claire Hopkins stand in front of three large Torrey Pines that fell at University House. The property didn't suffer other damage. The picture was taken Thursday.
“The campus is littered with tree limbs, and while a few vehicles were damaged, due to preparation and good fortune, there are no known injuries,” said Thackston. ”For many tall trees, the combination of soaked soil and strong gusts of wind was too much.” Trees fell at parking lot 502, SIO, at the intersection of La Jolla Shores Drive and Horizon, and at the at the Central Mesa Graduate Housing complex.
Three Torrey Pine trees also toppled next to UC San Diego’s historic University House, but the unoccupied building was not damaged.
Facilities Management workers placed hundreds of sand bags on Thursday during the heaviest downpours, and on Friday filled an additional 500 sand bags in the grounds yard at the Campus Services Complex.
“When you return to your hopefully dry student apartment, office, lab, dining hall or classroom this week, please join me in thanking the campus staff for their efforts last week to keep the ship of campus functioning and on course during the storms, said Thackston.
|
