New Footage Shows Flooding At DU That Warped Basketball Court, Filled Locker Rooms
DENVER (CBS4) - The University of Denver is working to repair millions of dollars in damage from a storm in June, and new video has surfaced showing the flooding.
There was so much hail in the storm that it ripped leaves from trees, and so much water that it clogged storm drains. It all flowed into a loading dock slot, finally becoming too much and spilling into the Ritchie Center.
"Literally at 5:21 we saw the security footage where it broke through the back loading dock door and basically a river coming through the entire first floor of the Ritchie Center," said Ryan Peck with DU Athletics & Recreation.
Thousands of gallons raced through the massive multi-purpose facility, warping the basketball court and flooding the locker rooms.
"If you look around in the facility, as the water was looking for a little bit lower level to escape out of. As it came through on the east side and worked it's way through some of our support spaces, our equipment room, our sportsmen area, and all of our locker rooms as well," said Peck.
Video shows hockey players wading through the water. Eventually it rushed out the doors and flooded the lacrosse field.
"We instantly had to pull out every carpet, rubber flooring, and even the dry wall that it touched had to be decontaminated or removed," Peck said.
Over the past month, workers have been repairing the damage while locker rooms and other facilities have been moved.
"We're dry. And that's kind of the first, most important piece. The big part of the project which you'll probably notice is the Hamilton Gymnasium Floor, which is three full size basketball courts that the maple wood soaked up with water and we had to replace that," Peck said.
In almost every room on the first level up to 18 inches of drywall has been replaced.
"We'll be back up and normal at times when games get underway here in early September," said Peck.
School officials tell CBS4 that they put together new procedures to clean out those storm drains, even during a storm, to make sure this flooding doesn't happen again.
Next up is replacing the championship-winning lacrosse field.
