Wilson Hall endured new water damage and a collapsed ceiling in one of its offices following the heavy rain from Hurricane Helene.

According to Orville Herndon, Wilson Hall building coordinator, Murray received more than 5 inches of rain over several days.

“It isn’t often that we receive that much from a storm system,” Herndon said.

Herndon said he was notified Sept. 30, of water leaks on the third floor of Wilson.

“I checked the areas reported and also checked the rooms which had experienced water leaks in the past,” Herndon said. “I notified Facilities Management through their AIMS system and notified the dean of the College of Business by email.”

The most significant leak involved a ceiling collapsing inside office WI 308B.

“The system installed to collect water as it leaked from the roof onto the ceiling tile was soaked with water and collapsed,” Herndon said.

He said two other faculty offices had lesser amounts of leaking where tiles got wet but did not collapse. Water also leaked down between the wall and sheet rock in the Organizational Communication Office.

Herndon provided photos of these leaks which he sent to the dean.

“Beyond having SSC (SSC Services for Education) clean up the ceiling tile fragments, I don’t know what else Facilities Management did,” Herndon said. “Hopefully they contacted the roofing contractor and had them make another attempt to find and fix the leaks. Ultimately sealing the water entry points is the best way to resolve this problem.”

While there are water damaged tiles over the computers in Waterfield Library, Dean Chris Ferguson said the libraries were not affected by Hurricanes Helene or Milton.

“We did not have any water enter Waterfield Library or Pogue Library due to either of those storms,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson also said that the only water issues Waterfield has is from the failure of the city’s water main, which flooded the lower level of the library over the summer.

“We are still in the process of recovering from that flood,” Ferguson said. “However, we have not had any water leaks or flooding in Waterfield since then.”

Here is a link to an article of the Murray State News covering that flood.

Jason Youngblood, director of Facilities Management, said there’s been no major change in the leaks since the hurricanes.

When asked about how the roofs of campus buildings did against the hurricane rain, he said there was no impact.

“It generally takes extreme conditions to create new issues,” Youngblood said. “Wind, rain, hail, snow, ice and any combination of those can create unique issues.”

Youngblood also said the Facilities Management team is ready to deal with any issues that come their way.

He also provided information for students, should they want to report a leak.

“In housing buildings, students should follow the guidelines set out by the Housing Department in each of the residential buildings,” Youngblood said. “In academic buildings, students should notify a department head or administrator in the building to be sure notice has been made to Facilities Management.”