Two water pipes froze and burst over winter break causing damage to the first and second floors of the Centennial Science and Engineering Library.
Joel Straquadine, facility maintenance manager, said the total dollar amount for repairs and damages is close to $1.5 million.
"I'm being conservative," he said. "There's a good chance we could go over that."
Johann van Reenan, director of Centennial Library, was called into the building on Dec. 24 after a student reported hearing loud noises.
The student compared the noises to the sounds of rushing waterfalls, van Reenan said.
"I knew that was definitely not good," he said. "I was there within a half hour."
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He said he couldn't believe the scene he arrived to.
"The noise and the visual of it was really frightening," he said. "The library is the last place in the world you want to see water flowing from the ceiling."
Van Reenan said 40,000 gallons of water were pumped out. By the next day, the majority of the carpet was removed by independent contractors hired by the University.
"That was the first objective," he said. "We were worried about the health hazards with mold spores in the carpet."
Most of the damage occurred on the second floor, van Reenan said.
"Water was falling from the roof to downstairs," he said.
All the books from the second floor were moved to the Ford Utilities center on Lomas and University boulevards, van Reenan said, but out of more than 207,000 books, less than 300 got wet. Bound journals were unharmed.
"Fast action saved the day," he said.
More than 30,000 maps located in the library were damaged and have been frozen and shipped to a company in Dallas for repair, van Reenan said, adding that all rare maps were saved.
Mary Vosevich, director of Physical Plant, said the break occured after PNM experienced a major power outage for more than 30 minutes.
"That, coupled with the low temperature, resulted in some of our chilled water lines freezing," she said.
Straquadine said he was called to UNM at 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 24, right after the power went out.
By 4:15 a.m., Straquadine had more than 30 people onsite checking generators in the major buildings at UNM.
It wasn't very long before they realized there could be a problem.
"They have a system that monitors the chilled water, and they noticed they were losing the chilled water," Vosevich said.
The outage occurred during one of the coldest days of the year.
"With temperatures of 7 degrees and chilled water already at 41 degrees, it doesn't take a lot for the pipes to freeze," Straquadine said.
Straquadine said the damage could have been worse if they hadn't responded quickly.
"Due to our quick reaction, we got this at a fraction of the cost and saved millions of dollars," he said. "The water got up to ankle level. Could you imagine that at the 8-foot level?"
Crews worked night and day throughout the break to clean up and to get books packed and moved, Straquadine said. More than 20,000 boxes of books were moved from the library to the Ford Utilities Center, he said.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, Straquadine said.
"When the library is done, we'll have new flooring, new walls and new ceilings," he said.
Vosevich said the new facility will be an improvement.
"It's not our choice of how we would like to renovate a space," she said. "The students will have a nice facility when we are finished."
FM Global, UNM's insurance company, will cover the majority of the costs. Risk management is still assessing the rest, Vosevich said.
Senior Rich Talley, a computer science major, said he received an e-mail from the library stating all books located on the second floor are temporarily unavailable, but books could still be accessed through inter-library loan.
"It's interesting that they put these (buildings) underground," Talley said. "I hope they get it cleaned up and we get access as soon as possible."
