Storm Hinders Work on Lamont Library

Emergency crews were operating two gasoline suction pumps in the recesses of Lamont Library foundations last night, fighting against time and predicted freezing temperatures that threatened to delay the entire construction schedule of the rising building.

Workers on the first 9 o'clock shift feared that the clearing of a foot of water, which had settled over the entire base of the structure, would require most most of the night and part of this morning.

Shafts Crucial Job

Most difficult problem facing the pumpers was draining two deep elevator pits, as three feet of water was estimated in the connecting tunnel with the Union building. Other effects on the construction site of the storm that blanketed New England yesterday were the post-ponement of scheduled concrete pouring and the weakening of the foundation lip.

Rainfall that bit a regional high of ten inches proved unmanageable to Cambridge street drains elogged with fallen leaves. Houses reported cellar conditions ranging from dampened to partially flooded.