Storm causes minor damage on campus

10:45 a.m., Sept. 30, 2004--The fierce storm that swept through Delaware Tuesday, Sept. 28, caused varying degrees of flooding in numerous buildings and damaged some roofs at UD, but did not cause substantial damage, according to Robert Stozek, associate vice president, facilities.

The tropical storm, a remnant of Hurricane Jeanne, intensified in New Castle County shortly after 4 p.m. and flooded homes, tore roofs off, knocked out power to thousands of homes, snarled rush hour traffic and triggered a tornado at the New Castle County Airport that damaged five C-130 cargo planes assigned to the Delaware Air National Guard, according to news reports.

“The biggest problem was that we had about five inches of rain in a two-hour time frame, and the underground stormwater drains on campus and under various city streets could not remove the water quickly enough. Consequently, we had backups in the buildings,” Stozek said.

Most of the flooding occurred in the Rodney residence complex, the Amy du Pont Music Building and Perkins Student Center.

“It was very heavy rain, very torrential rain, that we got, which is very typical of these tropical systems,” Peter Jung, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in State College, Pa., said of the 5.7 inches of rain recorded in northern Delaware over 24 hours beginning Tuesday morning. “To get that [much rain] in this part of the country is a very rare event. It’s about a one-in-25-years event.” Reports in the Newark indicated there were areas where as much as 8 inches of rain fell.

Jung said the tropical storm season is not over yet, but no other such storm is expected any time soon. A strong cold front is expected in the region over the weekend.

“In some buildings, we had a couple of inches of water. It was coming through the doors and in some cases it was coming in through the floor drains. We had problems from the West Campus to the east. The whole campus was affected,” Stozek said.

Dozens of custodial and maintenance staff at UD worked through the night mopping up the water and moving furniture and other items on affected floors. The total damage will be determined after the cleanup, Stozek said.

Stozek said the last time the University experienced such widespread flooding was during Hurricane Floyd in 1999. “This wasn’t as bad, but it was getting close,” he said.

Article by Martin Mbugua

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