University: Flood damage repairs may cost $7-$10 million
A more exact damage estimate will be available at end of week
Damage caused by flooding from a June 23 thunderstorm may cost Central Michigan University $7 to $10 million in repairs to the affected facilities.
As of Monday, CMU's Facilities Management department shifted its focus from emergency response to recovery operations, said Jonathan Webb, associate vice president of Facilities Management.
"That's been our focus since Friday – Making sure that we can still support all of the events, conferences, tours and classes at the university," Webb said. "We had an exceptional response to the storms on Friday and Saturday. We had multiple buildings on campus that were affected by the storms, and the teams are continuing to respond to those facilities in need."
Facilities Management staff are in the process of gathering information from all departments on campus to assess the amount of damage that was done by the storm. After damage has been documented, the information will be sent to the Isabella County Emergency Operations Center, which will then send the information to the State of Michigan.
Webb said that a more exact damage estimate will be available near the end of the week. The majority of the damage was done to the basements of facilities, and other underground areas of infrastructure. Facilities affected by flooding include the Student Activity Center, Rowe Hall, Calkins Hall, Foust Hall, Dow Science Complex and Theunissen Stadium.
CMU is insured for the damage, and the university is working with insurance adjusters in the process of conducting damage assessments, Webb said.
One of the areas of campus that was hit was the Student Activity Center. The building was impacted by flood water around midnight on June 23 and then experienced additional flooding at around 4 a.m. said the SAC's director of facilities operations Kristen Kosuda-Suhr. The weight-training center, the M.P. Fit room, the Large Sports Forum Court and the SAC Pool were all damaged.
All of the areas affected by the flooding are being repaired. Many facilities in the SAC remain operational.
"We have a great custodial team that was very diligent about jumping on the problem right away," Kosuda-Suhr said. "They had everything from the first round of flooding cleaned up within an hour. They were very fast in expediting their response time."
Isabella County Administrator Margaret McAvoy said an initial estimate of Isabella County flood damage is in the "tens of millions of dollars."
