The EMU incurred about $75,000 in damages after nearly 2.5 inches of water flooded into to east end of the 50-year-old building and dripped down several levels, ballooning and breaking the wooden floors in several places.
Five or six other buildings were damaged, but Agate Annex, which requires about $25,000 to fix basement flooding, and the EMU, are the two most costly.
Students’ incidental fees often help pay for emergency repairs, but because of the severity of the damage, the state’s insurance is expected to pay the majority of the bill.
The EMU leaks happened after 2.5 inches of rain fell on Dec. 30, causing the drain on the third floor terrace to overflow into the skylight and the two floors underneath. The current door seals from the third-floor terrace to the EMU skylight have almost no lip to keep out water and the outside drain isn’t located at the terrace’s lowest point.
The University will be looking into door seal repairs or replacements and alternative drainage options.
EMU Director Dusty Miller and EMU Facilities Director Dana Winitzky each spent about two hours on New Year’s Eve vacuuming the flood waters.
Winitzky “popped” the skylight floor to get to the two inches of sitting water under the tiles, Winitzky said. What students now see is the result of wooden tiles absorbing the water, expanding and buckling from the pressure.
“We got the majority of the sitting water, but the damage had already been done,” Winitzky said.
There are several large bulges in the floor outside of the EMU ticket office and two in the skylight room that stretch more than 12 feet in length.
The University is working on assessing the damage and getting an exact estimate on the cost of repairs from state insurance adjusters and contractors. University Senior Director of Public and Media Relations Mary Stanik wrote in an e-mail that the $75,000 in damage is the University’s estimate for the EMU, but that wasn’t the only building found in high water.
She said there are five or six other locations on campus that have flood damage.

“After the EMU, the next most troubling site is the Agate annex,” Stanik wrote. A contractor is working on the flooded annex basement already, but the water source is unknown so far. “(We) estimate it will cost $25,000 to correct.”
“We are planning to consolidate all of these matters into one claim which will have a $2,500 deductible, but we expect the state’s risk management to eventually approve most of the claim,” Stanik wrote.
Students help pay for these sorts of damages, but because the University is a state entity, it is covered under the state’s insurance. Each term, 5 percent of the $191 incidental fee paid by each student is put into a Prudent Reserve Fund, which Miller said will be used to pay most of the $2,500 premium. Miller said he is unsure if there is a limit to how much the state will pay for such losses.
The actual damage estimate will come in the next couple weeks and the University has not yet given a timeline for construction.

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