Due to a record-breaking 3.32 inches of rainfall accumulated on Dec. 7 three of the City of McMinnville Sewer Lift Stations as well as parts of the McMinnville community and campus lost power, causing buildings to sustain rain intrusion, ground water and sewage flooding.

Affected buildings include Dana, Miller, the old boiler plant next Newby, Emmaus house, Jonasson, the basement of Riley and one house near campus that the college owns.

When the city lost power to three of its sewer lift pump stations it caused the sewage and storm water lines to back up, which led to buildings that are connected to the city’s sewer to flood in their lower floors.

City of McMinnville Collection System maintenance supervisor, Joe Rinkes, was unavailable for immediate comment.

When the buildings started to flood, Facilities Services responded and attempted to keep as much water out and protect the buildings.

During the flooding, Environment Health and Safety Director, Rebecca Wale, said that no one got sick or injured. Wale said this was a concern since their was electrical equipment underwater in some places as well as that their was sewage water near places people live.

The college contacted their insurance company and then hired Belfor Property Restoration, based out of Portland, Oregon, to handle the restoration and management of the affected buildings on campus.

The restoration company arrived on campus the day after the flooding occurred.

With finals week approaching, Facilities Services and the restoration company tried to minimize the overall impact on student’s work due to noise or safety issues.

The company first removed anything that was salvageable and placed it in bags for storage. They also removed anything that was contaminated and disposed of it.

Rachel Bradshaw,’ 17, commented, “As a California native, I don’t have flood insurance so anything of mine that was contaminated by the water had to get thrown out and I have to replace it all myself. The biggest inconvenience was having to go to a residence hall or a friend’s apartment to do laundry.”

Demolition began after items were removed. Any dry wall that got wet was cut out and the company brought in air pumps to dry out the wall and sanitize everything.

The college also brought in a third party environmental testing company that tested the air quality in any affected buildings. The air quality in each of the affected buildings passed the test.

Wale said that the overall completion of the restoration project has been completed, with only a few small items left to finish.

The estimation of loss due to the flooding is approaching $750,000, according to Wale.

Facilities Services has identified several projects to complete so an event of this size doesn’t happen again.

The college is looking to work on the drains at Jonasson hall and improving the drainage at the off campus houses it owns.

Several houses and businesses in McMinnville also experienced flooding and water damage.

“We’ve had employees that have worked here for more than 30 years and have never seen anything like this,” Wale said.

No students had to relocate to another building during the restoration project.