By Jordan Green, Editor-in-Chief
Carter Hall rooms revamped after December flood
University maintenance crews are remodeling offices in Carter Hall that were damaged during a December flood stemming from a plumbing repair.
Custodians walked into Carter Hall on Dec. 12 and found water in the main hallways on the first and second floors. Carpet and pieces of furniture in the adjoining offices of some Northwestern instructors were damaged.
The flood occurred after university maintenance workers replaced a toilet in the building on Dec. 9, said Dr. David Pecha, the university’s executive vice president.
Workers turned the building’s water supply off while making the repair, but at some point, someone turned on a faucet in one of the building’s bathrooms on the second floor.
No water came out of the faucet, and the person left the faucet on, Pecha said. Maintenance workers weren’t aware that the faucet had been turned on, and after they turned the building’s water back on, water started running through the faucet.
The faucet remained on all weekend. Eventually, the amount of water exceeded the sink drain’s capacity and the capacity of a floor drain in the bathroom, Pecha said. The water ran all weekend long, flooding the first floor.
“It wasn’t caught until Monday morning,” Pecha said. “So, we went in then and cleaned out the offices. We had to pull up some carpet in some conference rooms. So, we’re in the process of repairing the damage, repainting, getting new carpet down. It was just a bad series of events.”
The hallway flooring, which is made of terrazzo, was undamaged, Pecha said. No classroom technology was affected, and new furniture has been ordered. Repairs should be completed within a week or two.
The cost of the repairs should be “fairly minimal,” he said.
“We lucked out,” he said. “It could have been much worse.”
Dr. Jennifer Mahieu was one of the professors whose first-floor office was affected by flooding.
“My office happened to suffer the greatest with wall damage, furniture and years of work lost,” she said.
Mahieu said 24 years’ worth of books and paperwork were destroyed. However, her computer was not damaged. Her office is temporarily located on the second floor in Room 210.
“The university has been very supportive with what has been going on,” Mahieu said. “They have been making sure that everything is being done thoroughly.”
— Northwestern News Senior Reporter Connor Gray contributed to this report.