As shared in the email that went out Christmas Eve, Live Oak had significant water damage after a pipe upstairs became uncoupled, flooding both the second and first floors.
We currently have a Restoration company removing ruined wallboard and insulation, running fans, and doing all of the work necessary after a flood. Along with Tim and Sue Buckley, today I met with the Insurance adjuster. He will be submitting his report to our insurance company, and we should have a response on our claim in a month.
Chris, our Director of Lifespan Faith Development, will be asking for help sorting through the items that were in the nursery and preschool room. We will be using alternate spaces for nursery/preK until those spaces have been repaired.
Is this disheartening? Oh, of course. There is a lot of work that will need to be done to deal with this, not only by us, but by Shir Ami and the Stem school. It’s okay to call a bummer “a bummer.”
But I have confidence in Live Oak that we will be able to pull together and do what needs to be done. Much of that will be working with contractors and coordinating the repairs. How can you help? We’ll definitely need people with construction expertise who can advise us, but we also need people who can simply come up to the church and unlock doors for workers. Are you good at keeping track of details? We’d love your help with organizing the master plan. Let me know how you can help! Minister@liveoakuu.org
Timeline:
Friday, Dec. 23: At some time before 6:30pm a main water pipe in the School Building attic burst open.
A staff person from the STEM school stopped to drop off supplies and saw water flowing our the window on the second floor and alerted us. The main water valve was turned off and stopped the water flow.
Upon entering, the building the second floor of the school building was covered in a few inches of water.
Water had poured down into the first floor of the school building. There were a few inches of water in each room and the back stairwell was flooded. Ceiling tiles had fallen in portions of all the first rooms including the Nursery, preschool room, and Shir Ami rooms.
A number of church members arrived at the scene and immediately started vacuuming up water.
Valuable computer equipment was removed to safe locations. Then water soaked ceiling tiles were removed. Rooms were cleared so that water could be vacuumed up. More members arrived with vacuum pumps.
The plumber arrived and immediately found the problem and repaired the pipe. Water was turned back on. It became obvious that the damage and amount of water was beyond our capabilities. The Blackhill Restoration company was called and they arrived on the scene with in 3 hours. Throughout the night they continued to vacuum up water and then set up fans and giant dehumidifiers to dry out the water.
They returned Monday morning and started the process of opening up the walls and removing wet insulation. All furniture was moved from the first-floor rooms and temporarily placed in the fellowship hall. Over the next 2 days, all walls have been opened up and the flooring removed. The goal is obviously to dry out the building and not allow any mold to form.
As of this report, the company is still in the stage of removing any water-damaged structures and drying out the building. We are working closely with the insurance company so that we can start the restoration. Obviously, our goal is to return to normal operations but it could take a while.
It should be noted that extensive damage has been done to the school building only. Fortunately, water did not flow toward the Fellowship Hall and the main church building.