Flood? What flood?
We had plenty of excitement on Saturday, 18 Oct 2003. Our computer lab (the Computational Physics Group) was flooded! It's ironic because we're actually located on level 6 of a 13-level building. Therefore, it's the least likely place to be flooded. Naturally, I had to take some pictures of what happened. These images were taken on Monday, 20 Oct 2003. I'm quite lucky that my desk and computer were spared from any damages. Others, however, were not so lucky. This is their story.
Tanya (left) is one of the unlucky ones. Her desk is located at ground zero. Stan (our sysadmin, right) is trying to revive Tanya's computer.
After much fiddling, Stan pronounced the motherboard to be dead. It was later found that the hard drive was salvageable, to Tanya's huge relief (she did several laps around the lab, chanting "I'm so lucky… I'm so lucky…").
Ground zero, right on top of Tanya's desk. See the evidence of water which had flooded through the ceiling?
This is one of the notices that were put up for computers suspected to be involved in the water-flooding-into-them fiasco.
Another ground zero, right in the middle of the room. Lucky us it wasn't the big, black, evil-looking pipe which had burst. I'm betting the workers will cut that one in December, though.
Beneath ground zero number 2. Notice the makeshift water bucket. Also, notice the pieces of ceiling insulation in the bucket. My desk is on the other side of the red partition.
I don't know if this computer suffered worse fate than Tanya's or not.
A close-up of the corner. Yes, that is water you're seeing.
The inside of the wet computer. I believe it's now operational again (22 Oct 2003).
Damaged books.
More damage.
Mmm… wrinkly…
Someone will certainly pay for these!
According to an apologetic worker, when the workers did some work on Level 7, they accidentally cut the water pipe. Notice the one labelled "DI.W." in the foreground. That's the pipe that carries de-ionised water. He said the water actually ran for 1.5 hours before someone could turn the bloody thing off. The worker gave his word that this will not happen again because they now have turned off the water pipe. Makes you wonder why they didn't do that before they started cutting stuff they don't know about, doesn't it?
I love RMIT. There's always plenty of action. If it's not virus/worm attack, it's flooding. Mind you, this is the third time the flooding happened. But for the first two times, we were actually there, so we could do something about it.
Even with the water piper turned off, we still had water dripping from soaked ceiling insulation. Could you see the water drops?
Outside our lab, these little fan/heater units are working overtime to clean up the mess.
The same fan/heater, from the side. Just for fun.
I guess the corridor was also flooded. They have taken off the insulation, presumably because they were too soaked.
Any donations, big or small are welcomed. Please make them payable to the "Comsim Group Flood Victims Appeal", and send to the Physics Department Office, RMIT University, Building 14, Level 5.
And there you have it. The wonderful world of RMIT, full of excitement. Prospective students, please apply as soon as possible. You don't want to miss what more surprises they have in store! One good thing did come in the end, though… The floor and carpet are now squeaky clean and smell like lemon. At least, I think it's lemon.