Market St. building closed by flooding

In the wake of Sunday's four floods, two more disrupted campus life yesterday -- the first, at Wharton Reprographics, located at 3535 Market St., caused major delays and damage in the building that also houses a branch of PNC Bank and parts of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. A second flood in the lobby of Hamilton College House began in the early morning but was more limited in scope.

Bursting water pipes, as a result of the recent cold weather, and a decline in heat usage during the period of decreased activity, has been the cause of all six reported floods.

At 7 p.m. Sunday, the displaced water was first noticed in the Market Street building. It was promptly fixed, but the pipe burst again at 3 a.m. It ran until 10 a.m, according to Wharton Reprographics staff member Jay Yarow.

"Three big machines were under water," Yarow said. "It was like it rained indoors."

By last night only one of the machines was functioning properly.

"It's karmic payment, because for the past week they turned off the heat in the lobby," Yarow said. "It was as cold inside as it was out. The security guards had to wear full winter clothing while they checked IDs."

The employees didn't manage the heat properly and they didn't follow proper heat regulation, a maintenance worker who dealt with the pipes said, according to Yarow.

The water closed the entire building for the day, forcing long lines in front of the automated teller machines in the front of the building where people lined up to deposit checks. Handwritten signs on the door declared the building closed due to emergency and offered directions to relocated meetings.

Due to the flood, some students experienced delays in buying their bulkpacks. Wharton sophomore Mandy Le, like others in Management 104, was not able to purchase her bulkpack yesterday. Reprographics told her that the delay should last until the end of the week, Le said.

The problem in Hamilton was contained to the lobby area, and did not affect many students. "To call it a flood might be an overstatement," said Eric McAfee a fine arts graduate student and eighth floor graduate associate in Hamilton.

Nevertheless, an e-mail was sent out early in the day to house residents by Hamilton House Dean Tabitha Dell'Angelo informing them that a leak was present in the lobby and that it most likely "stemmed from an air conditioning pipe that burst in the area of the computer lab." The e-mail added that there was no damage reported.

"It was taken care of efficiently and it didn't cause any interior damage," McAfee added

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