{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-article-tsx","path":"/kaplanflood","result":{"data":{"primeArticle":{"slug":"kaplanflood","excerpt":"Tens of thousands of gallons of water, $2.7 million in damages and lots of angry professors. What do you know about the flood in Kaplan Hall?","headline":"Anatomy of a flood","author":"Justin Huwe","authorbio":"","authoremail":"","authortwitter":"","coverimg":"https://assets.dailybruin.com/images/kaplanflood/web.prime.ERRflood.CRW-0a1d459f2c91fe5f2d18e2a68dd5f2ce.jpg","covercred":"Chelsea Westman and Ashley Kenney","coveralt":"Photograph of Kaplan with water filter edited over","articleType":"article","updated":null,"content":[{"type":"text","value":"Confused and panicked, Jeremy Kelley was short on options."},{"type":"text","value":"“I started going through the bathrooms and just grabbing paper towels and trying to create a little bit of a barricade to keep it from going further down the hall,” said Kelley, an associate director and lecturer in Writing Programs."},{"type":"text","value":"But he wasn’t trying to clean up a spilled drink, or perhaps even a leaking fish tank. Instead, water was cascading down the stairs outside his office in Kaplan Hall, flooding the floor."},{"type":"text","value":"Only moments before, the quiet Friday evening in Kaplan Hall had been interrupted by the sound of flowing water. The noise sounded like an overflowing sink, Kelley said, but it soon became apparent that the problem was much more severe."},{"type":"text","value":"“The water started to increase and increase and increase, and before we knew it, we had a waterfall in the stairwell,” he said."},{"type":"text","value":"Kelley and his colleagues sprang into action, calling the university’s 24-hour Facilities Management hotline and trying to make sense of the chaotic situation around them."},{"type":"text","value":"Christine Holten, the director of Writing Programs and the UCLA Undergraduate Writing Center, quickly ran down to the basement of Kaplan Hall to check on the center. Large puddles had already started forming in the hallway, and water had even started to seep in through the ceiling tiles above her, she said."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"The water started to increase and increase and increase, and before we knew it, we had a waterfall in the stairwell.”\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"“I just grabbed all my stuff and unplugged all the computers because I didn’t want any electrical fires or anything to happen,” she added."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo of water flowing down the stairs in Kaplan\",\"url\":\"https://assets.dailybruin.com/images/kaplanflood/waterdownstairs-9344210c0be904d24fd97b0528e0118b.jpeg\",\"credit\":\"Courtesy of Yadira Marquez\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Soon, both UCLA Fire and Facilities Management were at the scene, clearing everyone out of the building. Faculty and staff began gathering outside Kaplan Hall in the dark, watching the water flow down the front steps. Many people’s personal belongings were still in the building, becoming more soaked by the minute."},{"type":"text","value":"The full impact of the flood quickly became clear: Approximately 60% of the rooms in the building were damaged, said Kelly Schmader, the assistant vice chancellor of Facilities Management. That’s a total of 129 rooms – and everything in them, from the walls to the carpets to professors’ personal books, was drenched."},{"type":"text","value":"But something curious happened after the flood: Despite the extent of the damage, the flood went largely unnoticed by many in the UCLA community, Kelley said. Although the flood greatly inconvenienced those in Kaplan Hall, he felt that few people outside of the building’s community heard about the incident. In fact, the Daily Bruin published a grand total of <a href=\"https://dailybruin.com/2020/02/09/kaplan-hall-flooded-causing-potential-class-relocations-and-cancellations\">one news article</a> about the flood and UCLA Newsroom published none."},{"type":"text","value":"“This was very localized,” Kelley explained. “But I think that if you’re the one who’s affected, you’re kind of like, ‘I wish people were talking about this.’”"},{"type":"text","value":"So let’s talk about it – let’s talk about the flood in Kaplan Hall."},{"type":"text","value":"The flood in Kaplan Hall happened Feb. 7, 2020 – more than 1 ½ years ago. Nurit Katz, the former executive officer of Facilities Management, told the Daily Bruin in February 2020 that the flood began between 5 and 6 p.m."},{"type":"text","value":"Following the incident, Facilities Management determined that a type of pipe connector called a Victaulic coupling failed on the third floor of Kaplan Hall. This disconnected a chilled waterline, which is used for air conditioning, and caused tens of thousands of gallons of water to flow through the building, Schmader said."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo of water flowing down from the ceiling\",\"url\":\"https://assets.dailybruin.com/images/kaplanflood/raininside-23ff412f45a4f2b26510ace0b5e45729.jpeg\",\"credit\":\"Courtesy of Yadira Marquez\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"“Anytime you have a flood in a building like this, the key question is ‘what floor did it occur on?’” he added."},{"type":"text","value":"Because the flood in Kaplan Hall occurred on the third and uppermost floor, the water flowed down throughout the building via stairways, ceilings and walls. Consequently, all three aboveground floors, as well as the basement, sustained fairly equal amounts of damage from the flood, Schmader said."},{"type":"text","value":"As water rushed through Kaplan Hall, multiple faculty members were shocked by how long it took for help to arrive and shut off the water, Kelley said."},{"type":"text","value":"“I remember us thinking, ‘This is water coming down this building; this is something that someone should have jumped up and responded to immediately,’” he added."},{"type":"text","value":"According to Schmader, he was initially notified about the flood at 6:17 p.m. and Facilities Management secured the water in approximately 45 minutes. So what might have caused the delay?"},{"type":"text","value":"One reason might be the timing of the flood. According to Schmader, the flood happened after Facilities Management’s day shift staff had already gone home for the night, leaving only a “swing shift” on campus. After emergency calls started coming into the university’s 24-hour hotline, staff from the hotline had to locate personnel who were still on campus to respond to the disaster."},{"type":"text","value":"Another reason for the delay could be the structure of the chilled water system. The chilled water system is a loop of piping that brings water from building to building on campus, which means isolating a building and shutting off the water flow can be challenging, Schmader said. Thus, the waterline responsible for the flood was able to pump tens of thousands of gallons of water into Kaplan Hall while shocked faculty and staff were left helplessly watching."},{"type":"text","value":"Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the total cost of repairing the damage was over $2.7 million, Schmader said."},{"type":"text","value":"UCLA ultimately paid only the $100,000 maximum deductible per their insurance program, said Neil Berkovits, a General Liability Risk Administrator at the UCLA Office of Insurance and Risk Management, in a written statement. However, hitting the deductible cap in fact highlights the severity of the Kaplan flood."},{"type":"text","value":"Compared to other floods on campus, the incident in Kaplan Hall was relatively large, Schmader said."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"The total cost of repairing the damage was over $2.7 million.\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"“When a Victaulic coupling fails, it's a catastrophic thing,” he said."},{"type":"text","value":"Indeed, the repairs were extensive: Stained and broken ceiling tiles had to be replaced, as did wet light fixtures and flooring that had become warped from water exposure. The bottom 1 ½ feet of drywall had to be cut from multiple walls, Schmader said, and large fans were brought into the building to remove remaining moisture in the walls and prevent molding."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo of fans drying the flooded hallway\",\"url\":\"https://assets.dailybruin.com/images/kaplanflood/floorfans-f7d54a08838cbe02bce2623c295a438b.jpeg\",\"credit\":\"Courtesy of Yadira Marquez\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Along with the drywall, carpeting in the building had to be replaced, but Kelley said this was actually one “shining light” of the flood because the carpets were a stifling dark green color he did not personally enjoy."},{"type":"text","value":"Although Kaplan Hall did not suffer structural damage, Schmader said the flood severely impacted electronic equipment in the building. Water broke printers and computers, and the fire alarm system became so wet that it went temporarily offline."},{"type":"text","value":"Server rooms were also not spared from the flood, meaning that expensive computer equipment suffered damages. Consequently, the internet connection in Kaplan Hall was impacted by the flood."},{"type":"text","value":"Many professors lost personal books in the flood as well. Because Kaplan Hall houses mainly humanities departments, much of the research conducted involves books and paper manuscripts, which are especially vulnerable to water damage. In particular, professors in the English department were heavily impacted, Holten said."},{"type":"text","value":"“A lot of English professors, especially English professors of a certain generation, view their books as their friends,” she said. “It would be like having a friend drown or something.”"},{"type":"text","value":"In the immediate aftermath of the flood, Facilities Management moved faculty members’ belongings away from the walls and into the centers of their offices, allowing professors to sort through their possessions while workers repaired the walls."},{"type":"text","value":"However, Kelley took issue with Facilities Management’s treatment of his books – or as Holten would say, his “friends.”"},{"type":"text","value":"“They took a lot of the wet books and put them in a plastic bag. And I think that that was probably the worst thing that they could have done, because it made mold start growing inside of it,” he said. “And within a few days, those books looked black. And so we had to get rid of all of them quickly.”"},{"type":"text","value":"On the second floor of Kaplan Hall, the Grace M. Hunt Memorial English Reading Room was devastated by the flood as well. The ERR is a library run by the English Department containing 35,000 books and periodical volumes, which were particularly susceptible to water damage."},{"type":"text","value":"According to a <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/COTwaiwMLLh/?hl=en\">UCLA Library Instagram post</a>, roughly 7% of the ERR’s collection was lost. In the aftermath of the flood, attempts were made to rescue the damaged books by using dehumidifiers. A third-party contractor was called in to help given the sheer magnitude of the damage, and they moved some of the collection to an offsite location. Ultimately, the books were returned later that summer when the repairs in the ERR were fully completed."},{"type":"text","value":"ERR librarian Lynda Tolly was not immediately available for comment, and no other representative from the ERR responded to requests for comment."},{"type":"text","value":"Given the slew of damages, the UCLA Registrar's Office needed to quickly arrange new classrooms in other buildings for the students with Monday morning classes in Kaplan Hall. While faculty waited for their offices to be repaired, many had to find short-term places to continue their daily work. Some started sharing offices with colleagues who were less affected by the flood and utilized foldable tables to do work. Professors were even given the option to temporarily do work in UCLA library spaces, Schmader said."},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo of flooding in between cubicles\",\"url\":\"https://assets.dailybruin.com/images/kaplanflood/floodingbetweencubicles-98b132540d5c74f9cf0451481f6b6a59.jpeg\",\"credit\":\"Courtesy of Yadira Marquez\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"But before faculty and staff returned to the building, many wanted to be reassured that it was safe to enter. They were concerned about mold, air quality and structural damage to the building, Schmader said."},{"type":"text","value":"In order to address these concerns, Schmader facilitated a town hall meeting five days after the flood. At the meeting, faculty and staff were understandably frustrated, he said."},{"type":"text","value":"“There was no way I could tell you that I was talking to a bunch of happy campers,” he said."},{"type":"text","value":"Holten described her colleagues’ attitude after the flood more bluntly."},{"type":"text","value":"“Oh gosh, they were mad,” she said. “Emotionally, they were not happy about it.”"},{"type":"text","value":"At the meeting, industrial hygienists from the UCLA Office of Environment, Health & Safety spoke to concerned community members about the kinds of testing that would be performed in Kaplan Hall to ensure the building was safe. The meeting helped assuage some concerns, Schmader said, and in the days and weeks after the flood, he and his team earned praise for their response to the incident."},{"type":"text","value":"From early February to late April, more than 100 personnel from Facilities Management and an unknown number of third-party contractors worked on the repairs. Schmader said COVID-19 caused the repair process to drag on because the Facilities Management workforce dropped to only 35% to 40% of its usual size after the pandemic hit in mid-March."},{"type":"text","value":"As Facilities Management was hard at work making repairs, the insurance process also began in earnest."},{"type":"text","value":"Although UCLA’s insurance policy covered all damage to university property, damage to professors’ personal belongings was not covered, said Assistant Dean of Humanities Reem Hanna-Harwell. After attempting to file a third-party insurance claim, the university was unable to get lost personal belongings covered. Instead, Dean of Humanities David Schaberg used money from his discretionary fund – which typically allows him to give faculty research funding – to cover the damage to professors’ personal property, Hanna-Harwell explained."},{"type":"text","value":"Kelley, for example, lost thousands of dollars in books because of the flood, which he applied to get covered through the discretionary fund, he said."},{"type":"text","value":"Throughout the aftermath of the flood, multiple sources said they worked with Chief Administrative Officer Laura Clennon, who functions as the building coordinator for Kaplan Hall alongside Chief Administrative Officer Diane Ohkawahira. Both CAOs communicated with faculty and staff throughout the crisis and were also involved with the insurance process, Hanna-Harwell said. According to Schmader, they were particularly helpful throughout the recovery period after the flood. Although multiple sources recommended interviewing Clennon and Ohkawahira for this story, the former declined to comment and the latter did not respond to requests for comment."},{"type":"text","value":"Despite the extended period of time since the flood occurred, some are still feeling its repercussions more than a year and a half later. Kelley, for one, is still awaiting compensation for the books he lost – although he partly attributes the delay to distractions he faced from COVID-19."},{"type":"pull","value":"{\"caption\":\"For Kelley, a major question remains: ‘Why are we not maintaining these pipes a little bit better?’\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Over in the ERR, the insurance process is still ongoing. According to the Office of Insurance and Risk Management, staff are currently processing the claim associated with repairing and replacing the large number of damaged books, Schmader said. This means that, more than a year and a half after the flood, a final assessment on the cost has not been reached yet, and the $2.7 million total that Schmader provided will likely grow."},{"type":"text","value":"For Kelley, a major question remains: “Why are we not maintaining these pipes a little bit better?”"},{"type":"text","value":"Schmader admitted that this is a fair question. But he said there was never any reason to worry about the university’s Victaulic couplings before the Kaplan flood."},{"type":"text","value":"“We had never – knock on wood – had a Victaulic coupling failure in the 30 years that our chief engineer had worked at UCLA,” he said. “None of us could remember ever having one of these couplers fail, so there was no way to predict this.”"},{"type":"image","value":"{\"alt\":\"Photo of fallen ceiling tile in a flooded hallway of Kaplan Hall\",\"url\":\"https://assets.dailybruin.com/images/kaplanflood/fallentile-5ff1b56515da24179bc18b4b4df6e269.jpeg\",\"credit\":\"Courtesy of Yadira Marquez\",\"caption\":\"\"}"},{"type":"text","value":"Accessing a Victaulic coupling to inspect it is also a tedious and expensive process. The coupling is covered with a layer of insulation, Schmader said, and can only be inspected once the insulation is stripped off. Removing and replacing the insulation can cost up to $1500, Schmader added."},{"type":"text","value":"But Kelley thinks spending money on regular pipe upkeep is a worthwhile investment."},{"type":"text","value":"“The money that it probably costs to repair all of this stuff probably far outweighs the money that it would cost to maintain the pipes,” he said."},{"type":"text","value":"After the flood, Schmader said he and his team decided to inspect the Victaulic couplings in the area around the one that failed. Ultimately, their inspection found that multiple bolts were partially corroded."},{"type":"text","value":"In response to this discovery, Schmader’s team replaced the corroded bolts with stainless steel ones in order to prevent further breakages. Small water leak detectors were also installed in the building, he said, so that Facilities Management would be digitally notified of any future floods and could respond to them more quickly."},{"type":"text","value":"Hopefully, these measures will be enough to stop further floods from happening – or at least dampen their impact – on campus."},{"type":"text","value":"But Holten joked that she remains less optimistic about the possibility of another disaster, especially in light of the past year with the COVID-19 pandemic."},{"type":"text","value":"“I’m waiting for the locusts now,” she said. “Since disasters come in threes.”"}]}},"pageContext":{"term":"summer21","slug":"kaplanflood"}},"staticQueryHashes":[]}