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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Storm Causes Pipe To Burst in Building

Strong winds during a snowstorm on Dec. 12 left some tenants of a three-story East Village building drying out after a broken pipe resulted in flooding.
The winds ripped flashing from the roof of the former Northwestern Hotel building at 321 E. Walnut St. and exposed about one foot of the attic. That let in frigid air that froze a water heater pipe. The pipe burst and flooded the northeast side of the building.
Two law firms, a public relations firm and a retail shop were damaged by the water.

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"You would think it was Niagara Falls in here," said Jeff Link, a tenant and one of the owners of the building.
A 7 a.m. call on Dec. 13 from the building maintenance supervisor alerted Link to the problem. The water was shut off. But when Link arrived about an hour later, water was still gushing from the attic and flowing through the three floors.
Domestica, a gift and decor store on the first floor, was hardest hit.
Owner Chrissy Jensen spent most of the day Dec. 13 removing products, many of which were hand-crafted, to the nearby Subsect Skate Shop for safe keeping.
"I lost some merchandise, but not anything significant," Jensen said. "It's just that I need to be open; this is my last good week before Christmas."
Jensen said she started packing everything as quickly as she could to get it out of the shop, where ceiling tiles were dropping. She was able to return most items to the store the following day.
Jensen posted messages on Twitter and Facebook about the ordeal and received offers of help from several other East Village shops, some of which offered to sell her products from their shops.
"Everyone was so generous," Jensen said.
On the second floor of the water-soaked building, the Beving, Swanson & Forrest law firm also had damage to four of its 13 offices.
"It looked horrible," lawyer Mark Feldmann said, adding that the acoustic tiles laid in place resembled a lunar landscape. "We tried to minimize the damage. No computers were affected and no client files were ruined, but it was a big soggy mess."
Feldmann said at least a dozen members of a cleaning crew came in with wet vacuums and dehumidifiers to restore order.
Feldmann said his firm has been in the building since 1984. The only similar incident he recalled was when the basement flooded with stormwater backup in 1993 and the building had to be evacuated.
"We're truly very fortunate. This could have been much worse," he said. "This falls under the category of nuisance and inconvenience more than anything."
The cleaning crew also cleared the law firm Gunderson, Sharp & Walke on the third floor, where Joe Gunderson said the firm lost about half a day's work as it dealt with the cleanup.
Link said his own business, Link Strategies, a campaign management and organizing agency also on the third floor, had water in its storage area and on the floors.
An estimate of damage to the building and tenants' spaces had not been conducted by mid-week.

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