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ST. LOUIS MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com) -
A water main exploded on the campus of Harris-Stowe University in St. Louis late Wednesday afternoon. t flooded part of the campus, including the school library.
Compton Avenue near the new Chaifetz Arena on the neighboring St. Louis University campus was under 4-5 feet of water. It was shutdown.
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said water reached U.S. Highway 40, shutting it down briefly. He said water even reached the Chaifetz loading docks.
There was no apparent reason for the blowout. It happened in an open field on the Harris-Stowe campus not believed to be a pressure point of any sort in the water system.
It looked like a small bomb went off, judging from the size of the hole in the ground.
"We've got about a 20 foot hole in the back of this building right in the middle of a field, right in the middle of nowhere," Jenkerson said.
Harris Stowe spokeswoman, Courtney McCall, saw it all from her office window.
"As soon as I saw the water gushing out of the ground the way that it was, I ran out of my office and went to get the VP for business and said, 'oh my gosh, we have a mini-tsunami on our campus', she said. "The water was coming just that fast."
"It was going about an hour and a half or so," said Curtis Skouby of the St. Louis City Water Department. "The exact amount I couldn't tell of off-hand, but it's a lot of water."
"We had about 4 and ½ to 5 feet on Compton," Jenkserson said. "Chaifetz did get wet. They have some backup sump pumps that kicked in and were keeping it out of the Chaifetz Arena itself. It did get into their loading docks a little bit...the water was running onto the highway. We had to shut the highway down."
He said that was only temporary; the only real, lasting damage was n the Harris-Stowe library; aisles of books were surrounded by standing water; which after the way things looked outside, might not seem so bad; though inside, it might actually be worse than it looked.
"It almost appeared that the ground was caving in," McCall said. "The water on the right side of the library was just coming so quickly...we could tell it was going to have some kind of effect on our library, which would be the last place we want any damage with all of our periodicals and all of our books."
She said there were about 300 students enrolled in summer school. All of their classes were cancelled Wednesday night.
She said the campus would reopen for classes in the morning. She hoped the library would be ready, too, after an overnight cleanup effort.
City water crews had restored water service to everyone in the area by early Wednesday evening and planned to repair the break Thursday.
Compton Avenue near the new Chaifetz Arena on the neighboring St. Louis University campus was under 4-5 feet of water. It was shutdown.
St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson said water reached U.S. Highway 40, shutting it down briefly. He said water even reached the Chaifetz loading docks.
There was no apparent reason for the blowout. It happened in an open field on the Harris-Stowe campus not believed to be a pressure point of any sort in the water system.
It looked like a small bomb went off, judging from the size of the hole in the ground.
"We've got about a 20 foot hole in the back of this building right in the middle of a field, right in the middle of nowhere," Jenkerson said.
Harris Stowe spokeswoman, Courtney McCall, saw it all from her office window.
"As soon as I saw the water gushing out of the ground the way that it was, I ran out of my office and went to get the VP for business and said, 'oh my gosh, we have a mini-tsunami on our campus', she said. "The water was coming just that fast."
"It was going about an hour and a half or so," said Curtis Skouby of the St. Louis City Water Department. "The exact amount I couldn't tell of off-hand, but it's a lot of water."
"We had about 4 and ½ to 5 feet on Compton," Jenkserson said. "Chaifetz did get wet. They have some backup sump pumps that kicked in and were keeping it out of the Chaifetz Arena itself. It did get into their loading docks a little bit...the water was running onto the highway. We had to shut the highway down."
He said that was only temporary; the only real, lasting damage was n the Harris-Stowe library; aisles of books were surrounded by standing water; which after the way things looked outside, might not seem so bad; though inside, it might actually be worse than it looked.
"It almost appeared that the ground was caving in," McCall said. "The water on the right side of the library was just coming so quickly...we could tell it was going to have some kind of effect on our library, which would be the last place we want any damage with all of our periodicals and all of our books."
She said there were about 300 students enrolled in summer school. All of their classes were cancelled Wednesday night.
She said the campus would reopen for classes in the morning. She hoped the library would be ready, too, after an overnight cleanup effort.
City water crews had restored water service to everyone in the area by early Wednesday evening and planned to repair the break Thursday.
