A water line break occurred at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the McAllister Building on campus, causing several hundred gallons of water to flood the first floor and some of the basement, University Spokeswoman Lisa Powers said.
Powers said a chilled water pipe on the roof of the building that runs down into the building had frozen and then thawed when the sun was out today, causing the pipe to split in several areas.
The leaking water from the split cracks on the pipe ran down into the building causing somewhere between one and one and a half inches of water to flood the first floor lobby and some classrooms on the east side of the building, Powers said.
Penn State Office of Physical Plant Communications Coordinator Paul Ruskin said by the end of the day Thursday, 90 percent of the building should have been back in operation.
Despite initial reports that the ceiling collapsed, Ruskin said a fair number of ceiling tiles on the first floor fell and were damaged as a result of the water.
Upon arriving on scene, OPP evacuated the building as a precaution because water was leaking down into the electrical lighting fixtures, which could have caused a potentially dangerous situation, Ruskin said.
No one in the building was injured, Ruskin said.
Powers said that in addition to structural damage to the building, there may be damage to the computer servers that were housed in the basement where some flooding occurred. Powers said OPP crews will have to assess whether any computer equipment was damaged.
