(WARRENSBURG, Mo.) – The University of Central Missouri continues to assess damage to university facilities caused by a storm which hit the Warrensburg area early Thursday morning, April 3, causing flooding on area roadways and structural damage to homes throughout the community.

According to Chris Bamman, director of Facilities, Planning and Operations (FPO), several UCM buildings were impacted by the storm. Most damage was caused by water seeping through doorways and soaking tile and carpeting. and in some cases, it affected drywall, wall board and mechanical systems. Flooding forced the closing of the University Store for one day and at least one administrative office on campus had to temporarily locate a number of its staff members while cleanup took place last Thursday.

Bamman said an insurance adjuster was on campus Monday, April 7 to help assess damage. A cost estimate is not yet available. The lower levels of several buildings were affected at UCM, and included Ward Edwards Building, Elliott Student Union, Audrey J. Walton Stadium, Multipurpose Building, the president’s residence at Selmo Park, Wood Building, Student Recreation and Wellness Center, and Grinstead and Utt buildings. Some student residence halls also were affected.

“We’re very grateful for the work of our FPO staff and a number of employees in different offices who all pitched in to help with the cleanup in their respective areas. Because of their efforts, we were able to minimize possible disruptions to university operations in a timely manner,” Bamman said.

The Applications Systems office and the Technology Support Center are located on the lower level of Ward Edwards Building, and were among areas hit hardest by stormy weather. Both suites had up to two inches of standing water in places.

“We completely relocated the Technology Support Center to the west end of the lower level of Ward Edwards, using empty cubicles and converting conference rooms to office space. This included moving 13 TSC staff members with their computers and telephones, in a little over two hours,” said Mel Gross, manager of the TSC. “We continued to monitor user phone calls and respond to high-priority requests during this time.”

Campus core systems (MyCentral, Blackboard, Network/WiFi) were not affected by the flood.

Approximately 20 Office of Technology staff PCs were wet. Some will be functional after an appropriate drying time, and some will not, according to Gross.

Some damage to campus buildings was due to rising water in various campus manholes, said Mark Schlueter, manager of Network Services: “We are continuing to assess damage from the storms, particularly with regard to infrastructure damaged by high water. We experienced some issues with cable splices splitting due to rising water. The UCM voice communications infrastructure sustained limited damage due to water and storm related-electrical activity.”

Gross added that the TSC this week is assisting campus offices which had damage from last week’s storm.

“To date, we have worked with University Relations, Institutional Effectiveness, and Human Resources on a number of computers and printers damaged by lightning,” she said. “We also had some damage to equipment in the Veteran’s Center (Military and Veterans Success Center) and within the Office of Technology from flood water.”

Flooding that reached the University Store on the lower level of the Elliott Student Union resulted in damaged merchandise situated close to the floor, and included a number of boxes of sportswear. Textbook rental and sales areas were not affected. Similarly, Selmo Park had considerable flooding in various sections of the 1866 building.

KCP&L has continued to work throughout the Warrensburg community since heavy rains occurred last week. On Friday, April 4, power was intermittently turned off throughout the community between noon and 2 p.m. to fix damage. KCP&L also announced additional plans to briefly cut power, which would affect UCM sometime around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 9.