Menomonie (WQOW) - The cold weather created an
unexpected construction zone Tuesday. At
UW-Stout, the pipes froze in a dining hall.
Scott
Griesbach, the Executive Director of Student Life Services at UW Stout, says, "This is the type of weather where nobody wants to go
outside."
Outside the dining center on UW-Stout's
north campus it's as cold as an ice box.
Inside, the wicked weather has
created a whirlwind of cleanup.
Griesbach says, "We had a
pipe burst up in the ceiling of our dining hall. It just got really cold in
that area between the ceiling tile and the roof. The cold weather froze open one
of the dampers and that damper caused a lot of the cold air to come into the
building."
Around 2:30 Tuesday morning,
university police responded to an activated fire alarm. The frozen pipes are what caused the
sprinkler system to sound.
"They turned off
the sprinkler system but by that point, quite a bit of water had already flowed
out. There was so much water coming out that in some places the water seeped
into the carpeted area of the dining part of the food service," says Griesbach.
UW-Stout contacted the state of Wisconsin
Risk Management and Safety Department for help. Griesbach says, "We had them send
somebody out from Steamatic, which is a company that they use to go through and
assess the damage and determine how much water is still in the walls."
"We're running lots
of fans right now, in order to dry the walls out and all of the areas that the
water was absorbed into," Griesbach says.
The North Point Dining center serves
about 1,200 students. For now, they can go to the main campus to eat, or…"The convenience store is serving food for students,
we put together a couple of different packages that students can use to get
some grab and go food. Pizza, pasta, sandwiches, like hamburger, grilled
chicken, those sorts of things, "Griesbach
says.
The university says it also plans to
set up a buffet for students in the seating area once the carpet dries out. Things
should be fully functional by Friday.
The insurance company will be in town Wednesday. That will help the university get an idea of
how much repairs will cost.
