It appeared to be a normal day at Old Rochester Regional High School, with students shuffling off the bus and into the school, heading to their homerooms for yet another day of classes. But as the students walked by the library computer lab on Wednesday morning, something seemed awry.
There was quite a commotion occurring in the lab as janitors hurried to get the computers out of the room. Water had flooded down from the ceiling into the library and the adjacent lab, and the primary concern was to remove any and all electronics or books that were at risk of damage.
Principal Michael Devoll explained the details of what occurred.
“At around 6:00 am on the morning of January 6th, our morning custodial sweep of the building noticed that there was water spilling out into the hallway outside of the athletic director’s office and the computer lab off of the library,” said Devoll. “So, they went into the computer lab and there was water pouring from the ceiling. What had happened was a unit gave out in the ducts above the ceiling. What I was told was that the unit was fifteen years old and one of the parts on it gave out, causing the water to come down through the ceiling tiles.”
The unit will be fixed in order to prevent future leakage, Devoll said.
The custodial crew at ORR was able to remove the computers from the lab. Once removed, the main concerns became cleaning the carpet and stopping the leak.
“We immediately started to clean the water, and we called ServPro to come and assist with that,” Devoll said. “We got all the computers out of there. We moved them into another lab. They still work; we’re in good shape.”
The biggest issues, said Devoll, were getting rid of the water, drying the water, making sure that there was no mold that was going to develop, and cleaning the carpets.
Although the computer lab was severely flooded, it appears to be limited to only the lab, as only a small section of the library itself was wet.
As for the books and other resources in the library, nothing was damaged. In the computer lab, however, there were a few technical casualties.
“We lost three computers in the computer lab,” said Devoll. “All the other computers were saved.”
School life without a library has been rather difficult, especially with research paper time rolling in. Students during study have found other labs in which to print essays and gather to work on projects.
Teachers have relocated any work on research papers and other work to different labs (or utilized the multiple Chromebook Carts available for classrooms). The inconvenience, however, is temporary, as Devoll explained.
“Initially, we were told one week, which would be January 13 and it’s clearly not,” said Devoll. “So we are set at the second week, and we’re looking at January 20th.”
So, fellow students, worry not! The library will be up and running again before we know it.
As for the school budget, this incident shouldn’t affect it in any way.
“We have insurance, and we have a deductible that will cover this, so it won’t impact our regular budget,” explained Devoll.
By Sienna Wurl