Shannon Hoyt-

Around 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 27, the Fireside Café became the Rainforest Café in just a few minutes.

A sprinkler line on the second floor of the MSC, located in the Terrace (lounging area adjacent to the Fireside Café), broke and flooded an area of the second floor, as well as damaging several first floor spaces.

Damaged spaces include: Stoutonia office, Stoutfitters, other Involvement Center offices and, most significantly, the MSC Terrace.

Darrin Witucki, director of the MSC, estimated around three-eighths to a half an inch of standing water in the Terrace. He also estimated that (with the help of MSC staff, custodians and Steamatic, a cleaning and restoration service) they removed nearly 1,000 gallons of water from the lounge.

Witucki said there were no major losses aside from the Terrace ceiling: “I think everything else is fairly cosmetic. We lost a little bit of product [in Stoutfitters]. [As for] the Stoutonia computers, I’m pretty confident they will dry out and fire back up just fine.”

Despite a few waterlogged products in Stoutfitters, Julie Xenos, Stoutfitters store manager, said that the store will open on Jan. 2 as planned: “I’m glad if it was going to happen, it happened this week, because we don’t have a lot of foot traffic in the store. There aren’t a lot of students on campus, so we will be able to get things cleaned up. We will be up and running on Tuesday.”

The MSC will open, as scheduled, on Tuesday, Jan. 2, at 7 a.m.

As for the Terrace and Fireside Café, Witucki said that the area will hopefully open back up when students return on Jan. 22.

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