Flash Flood Swamps First-Year Mail Center

Around 8 a.m. yesterday morning a subterranean window in the Science Center broke, pouring hundreds of gallons of trapped water into the Harvard Yard Mail Center.

"It was just like in the Titanic, with the water rushing down the hallways," said Charlie C. Botosh, a facilities manager in the Science Center, who saw the window break.

Botosh estimated that about four feet of rainwater from Tuesday night's storm had collected in a six-by-six-foot sunken area around the window by the time the glass broke.

"You get all that pressure, and sooner or later, it's going to blow," Botosh said.

Normally, water in that area drains out through a grate next to the window, but Director of the Science Center Dean R. Gallant said he believed the drain was either frozen or clogged with debris.

"Apparently the heavy rains must have pushed a lot of mulch around," Gallant said.

Science Center employees noticed the rising water level in the window early yesterday, when the United Postal Service made its morning delivery.

Botosh and two other maintenance workers began clearing parcels away from the window, but the water pressure became too great and the glass broke before they were finished with the job.

Gallant said he believed the damage to students' packages was minimal. Most of the packages had been removed by the time the Mail Center flooded, and those that remained did not contain computer equipment or other water-sensitive property, Botosh said.

"Luckily we saved most of the packages," he said.

Botosh said that between 15 and 20 parcels were so wet that he and other Science Center employees had to remove their contents and repackage them in envelopes. Several dozen others were splashed, he said.

Damage to the Science Center was also minimal.

"Water spread out all over the floor, but it was a tile floor with a drain, so it all just drained away," Gallant said.

No one was injured in yesterday's incident.

"There was safety glass in the window, and so it broke into little chunks, not sharp pieces," Botosh said.

Yesterday's incident was not the first time that trapped water had burst through one of the subterranean windows and flooded the Mail Center.

"To my knowledge, it has happened once before,"Gallant said. Botosh said he thought the incidentoccurred about two or three years ago.

After the first incident, the subterraneanwindows were replaced with safety glass, Botoshsaid. But after this incident, Gallant saidScience Center officials will take strongermeasures to ensure that this problem does notrecur.

The broken window is located between theScience Center back stairs under the roof thatcovers the loading dock area facing Paine Hall

"To my knowledge, it has happened once before,"Gallant said. Botosh said he thought the incidentoccurred about two or three years ago.

After the first incident, the subterraneanwindows were replaced with safety glass, Botoshsaid. But after this incident, Gallant saidScience Center officials will take strongermeasures to ensure that this problem does notrecur.

The broken window is located between theScience Center back stairs under the roof thatcovers the loading dock area facing Paine Hall