CCC Special Evening Tea
tldr: It was a stressful afternoon for many Harnwellians. I will be serving tea in the cafe as a special CCC. Please use the stairs if you can. Plan to stay for a few minutes, and don’t block the flow in and out of the back door.
Good evening,
I am writing to you as a neighbor. I am not writing to you as a facilities staff member, not as a residential services/housing person, not as an emergency management staff member. This is not an official message of the university and is not for quotation, attribution, or really even sharing. I don’t have any special knowledge or official message to share. I am a neighbor, a fellow Harnwellian and we were all impacted by the flooding in the lobby this afternoon.
As a Harnwellian for 20 years, I will say I am sorry that your afternoon was disrupted, that you had to take the stairs, that you had to hear the fire alarm. I will also unequivocally say thank you or your patience, kindness, and grace. I will share some of the things that I do know about my afternoon experience as a resident.
1. The lobby is completely flooded. (And I did hear from students that Harrison had a flood too. I do not believe it was the same thing.) As you already know, in Harnwell, a Sprinkler went off in the lobby. Sprinklers are really effective at dispensing water. Once activated they put out alot of water. Ours put out alot of water. A student going to DRL told me that this was sewer water. This was a rumor going around campus. Don’t believe rumors. It smelled like a sprinkler. It looked like a sprinkler to me, and the housing team has already written us an email that says it was a sprinkler. IF you want to know what it looks like to see a sprinkler go ff, check this youtube out: https://youtu.be/zSFlDvr8H1g
2. I don’t know what caused the sprinkler to go off, but I can tell you that alot of buildings across the region are now experiencing flooding right now. When it is really cold out, pipes freeze. Water expands, the pipes expand, they break. But because they are frozen, nothing happens. Until they start to thaw. When they thaw, all the water pressure that was held back from the ice comes out. I don’t know if this happened today. But I know it happens alot when the temperatures are very cold. It happens in office buildings, private homes, apartments, condos, university buildings, government buildings. Anytime is exposed to cold and the water is not running, it can freeze. There are tricks to preventing this:
* When you get an email from housing saying close your window and turn ON your heat. Do it. The biggest reason it happens at Penn is because someone is hot, they open their dorm or classroom window, they turn off their heat, and a few days later, there is a flood. So I know it can be uncomfortable. But it’s worth it to prevent a flood.
* For your friends that live off campus, or if you ever buy or rent a home of your own. You can open your sink cabinet doors, close your windows tight, and leave a trickle of water flowing. Check the recommendations out from Consumer Reports<https://www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/home-maintenance-repairs/how-to-keep-pipes-from-freezing-a2277945570/>. With my family, I have to care for a >200year old farm house, a home in the suburbs, and a cabin in Alaska. Knock on wood, I have been ok. We do the consumer reports activities in the suburbs. At the farm, if nobody is there, we drain the pipes and shut off the water. In Alaska, when nobody is there we drain the pipes, remove the U traps under the sinks, and put antifreeze (RV) in the toilets. We then take a giant vacuum and blow out the pipes until they are dry. No water can remain. It is -19 F/C in Alaska.
3. For all the curious people that wanted to stop by the lobby just to see it. I celebrate and truly admire your curiosity. Hooray for whoever supported you in being so curious. I am sorry if I didn’t let you “just see it”. It is absolutely natural when there is a car accident, fire, or other emergency, to just want to see it. Observation is a wonderful way to learn. It also makes it extremely difficult for emergency personnel to do their important work. If you ant to learn more about emergency management, I encourage you all to join the Philadelphia Medical Reserve Corps<https://www.phila.gov/programs/philadelphia-medical-reserve-corps-pmrc/>. You don’t have to be clinical to join the corps. You can get trained on disaster response, mass casualty response, community outreach, and many other skills. I have been a member for more than a decade. I have responded to hurricanes, papal visits, two Super Bowl parades, and a couple Marathons and Broad Street Runs. I’ve staffed warming centers overnight for the city and performed community canvassing in heat islands in the summer. If you are curious and jsut want to see how peopel help each other “until the help arrives” join the MRC. When you finish at Penn, there is an MRC in yoru home state probably and you can transfer there.
4. I am extremely grateful for the response of facilities, housing, Allied, housekeeping, the department of Public Safety, and the package room crew. They identified the problem, isolated it, identified remediation, and are cleaning it up with the most efficiency possible Thank you to all the crew who responded.
5. There are a couple heroes that were amazing. (Some would say sheroes<https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryellendugan/2018/03/30/what-a-13-year-old-taught-me-about-being-a-shero/>.) A special Thanks to Miss Lisa from Allied Universal and Megan Jimmerson the Hose Director. They did an amazing job helping all of us Harnwellians out. Keeping things calm, communicating to the house, and helping people get in and out of the building. I hope you will take a moment to say thanks to them the next time you see them.
If you want to chat about your experience this afternoon, learn about my experiences with the MRC and some of the challenges(a/k/a opportunities) I have had to manage. Come down to the cafe at 9PM. IT is best if you take the elevators to 1 and then come down the steps. I will put some hot water on. I will have some fruit snacks and Dots pretzels. And I will have several varieties of tea. Take a break. Decompress, and come say hello to one of your neighbors. Wear a jacket because we are still using the back door at the moment. 9PM-10PM.
Keep an eye out on your email for any updates from Housing adn Residential Services. They are the professionals that can give the best information. In the mean time, come enjoy some tea with me. Mezzanine 9PM.
be well
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