Heavy rains in Johnson City during the last few days of July
caused flooding throughout the city and the ETSU campus.
Almost 30 buildings on campus had minor flood damage after
the storm of July 30 and 31, andmost of those were in the lowerlying
areas of campus. Most of the damage occurred in the basements of those buildings, although some did have roof damage, said Bill Rasnick, associate vice president of the physical plant. Rasnick said that the buildings that had the worst damage were the Center for Physical Activity, the Ada Ernest House, Gilbreath Theatre, Rogers-Stout Hall,
Brooks Gym and the Veteran’s Administration campus.
Rasnick said nearly every building will be fixed by Aug. 25.
“Everything but Brooks Gym will be fixed,” he said, “The roof
there still needs to be fixed.”Because of the roof, the ROTC, which uses Brooks Gym, has moved to the second floor of that building. The department of education, which also uses the facility, has temporarily moved to the basement of Rogers-Stout
Hall. Rasnick said most of the damage to the other buildings was to
the carpet and humidifiers. “Right now, the cost is $50,000
to $75,000,” he said. The university’s insurance has helped in hiring a company called ServPro, which specializes in water damage.
According to Rasnick, there was really nothing that could be
done to have prevented this from happening. He said a storm like
that happens about once every 100 years. However, according to
Rasnick, this was not a normal storm. “We got 100 years worth
of rain in a 24-hour period,” he said. Rasnick said that obviously
under those circumstances, not much could be done, but the
physical plant does all it can to minimize the damage from
flooding. He said that the problem was that the drainage systems just
could not handle that much water that quickly in that amount
of time. “One of our big problems here is that none of the water has any
place to go,” he said. When the city’s nearby overflow reservoir reaches its limit, the water backs up onto the ETSU campus. So until the city
fixes the problem, ETSU can do nothing more. Rasnick said that people in the physical plant worked hard the weekend after the storm to take
care of the situation. “People here at the university worked through the weekend,” Rasnick said. “It was a long couple of days for everybody over here.

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