APG-L Archives

From: "Barbara J. Mathews" <>
Subject: Fw: Situation at Connecticut State Library
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 16:44:37 -0500

>Subject: Situation at 231 Capitol Avenue Building
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>Well, another one for the State Library history books. Another instance of
>responding to the
>unknown.
>
>As I'm sure everyone knows, a flood was discovered on Monday morning by Jim
>Gasser and his
>Maintenance crew at the State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue. It was caused
by a
>broken pipe which had
>frozen sometime over the weekend, and burst. Although no collections or
>operations area were
>effected, the flooding being confined to the sub-basement and below, the
>electrical panels for the
>building were half submerged in water and had to be shut off. No power, no
>heat.
>
>Our Maintenance, private contractors, and the staff from Judicial worked
>around the clock to first
>repair the damaged pipe and then restore power to the building. All water
was
>drained out of the
>building by Tuesday morning but the resulting damage caused by the water
>prevented the restoration
>of power until Thursday morning. Power was restored by 10:00 AM and as
heated
>water was present in
>the building, since the pipe repair on Tuesday, the electrical blowers were
>fully activated to heat
>the building at this time. Some heat had been maintained throughout the
>building since Monday to
>prevent further damage. An emergency generator kept the critical systems
>operating but not enough
>to make the building very comfortable. As the building had four days to
cool
>down we will now go
>through a period of adjustment when the building will warm up.
>
>Administrative Services staff reported to work at approximately 9:00 AM on
>Thursday, January 7th, to
>prepare for the arrival of all other staff at 1:00 PM. The building was
>opened to the public on
>Friday morning. Many work areas were colder than normal while others had
>reached a more suitable
>temperature. Staff were brought in earlier than the public because we
wanted
>time for people to
>reacquaint themselves with their work situations without the pressure of
>serving the public. One
>example of how this worked was that when the network was put back on line
the
>Mail Server would not
>work. Repairs that Mario made before 1:00 PM allowed staff to report to
work
>expecting the full use
>of their computer based services. It is our hope that situations such as
this
>were corrected by
>allowing staff to work one half day when we were not open to the public.
>
>Staff at 18-20 Trinity Street began taking calls meant for 231 on Monday
and
>we had six numbers
>redirected from 231 to Trinity: GIS, H&G, Museum, LLR, State Librarian and
>Public Records. WTIC,
>our emergency storm warning station was notified that the Library was
closed
>from Monday morning on
>and local news media was notified starting Tuesday afternoon so we could
reach
>out across the state
>to notify the public of our status. The use of the phone tree seemed to
work
>well as once a
>decision was made whether to open or not, word was passed to staff at that
>time.
>
>For those of you who worked during this emergency I want to express my
>personal thanks for all you
>did.
>
>If you have any questions or concerns about any issue or matter that
resulted
>over this last week
>please call Kendall, me or speak to your supervisor and/or Division Head.
We
>will use your comments
>to review the events of the last five days and so better prepare for,
forbid
>the thought,
>emergencies such as this in the future.
>
>Thank you for your attention.
>
>Regards
>
>Richard Kingston
>Director of Administrative Services
>Connecticut State Library
>
>860-566-1021
>fax 860-525-7645
>

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