Atmospheric river storm leaves trail of damage

BY VANESSA GOMEZ Staff Writer

Several large storms damaged the Delta College campus over the winter break, overwhelming the drainage system and causing some power outages.

The majority of the damage was located primarily in the Budd and Shima buildings.

Around 15 rooms experienced some sort of flooding, around one or two inches at most, according to Stacy Pinola, the director of facilities management.

The storms toppled 25 trees, with one tree falling on the roof of the Budd building, causing some damage.

Delta College did close its campus on Jan. 8 and 9 due to the severity of the weather.

There was a power outage for those two days, but the majority of buildings had generators for backup.

“We had to manage the storm drains while it kept raining,” stated Claude Chavez, who works as a plumber for Delta. “It got to a point where we could no longer get rid of the water, so we could only manage it so it didn’t get worse.”

The robotics class and lab located in Budd 221 and 221G, respectively, did have some electronics receive water damage. Four computers were also damaged. These classes have been relocated to Shima 207 and 218, respectively.

Chavez, who has been working at Delta for nine months, said that no one in the maintenance crew had ever experienced a storm like this before.

Everything that was damaged by the water will be replaced.

The carpeting in the rooms that were flooded was immediately removed to prevent mold growth, according to Chavez.

The total cost of the damage is estimated to be around $1.8 million, which will be covered by insurance.

Importantly, aside from the two days that the campus was closed, no services were paused or rescheduled.

The majority of the damage done was able to be resolved before students returned to campus on Jan. 17.

Both Pinola and Chavez credit the maintenance crew for successfully getting the campus back on track to welcome students for the Spring 2023 semester.

“We have a dependable crew that were ready to work during the winter break,” said Chavez. “If we didn’t, it could have definitely been a lot worse.”