The extra security will cost about $2,160 a day, UH officials said.

The extra guards will supplement campus security officers who have been working overtime amid the crime concerns and because of the vulnerability of the damaged buildings.

Security captain Donald Dawson warned UH administrators and deans immediately after the flood about the possibility of increased theft attempts "and to pay attention to what's going on around you."

The university has suffered thefts before — 128 last year, 98 the year before and 58 in 2001, according to Dawson. But as Manoa copes with its worst catastrophe ever, the university is particularly vulnerable and the campus community especially sensitive to the latest incursions.

"People taking advantage of any situation is not good, but I don't think you'll ever stop people from doing something like that," said UH Chief of Staff Sam Callejo. "It's a problem. We're not happy, but we are aware this kind of thing happens and we're taking steps to minimize it."

UH Press offices in Manoa were broken into Oct. 30 under cover of the rain and flood, said director William Hamilton, and there have been signs that burglars returned twice but were thwarted.

"What they did was use the noise coming from the rain and storm to make more noise out here to break in," said Hamilton, who lost computers, backup discs, a scanner and copier, and 20 years of data including letters, contracts, file folders and templates.

A day after the flood, a woman in a pickup truck attempting to haul away material from Bilger Hall and the Art Building was apprehended by campus security and then arrested by Honolulu police. A few days after that, there was a break-in at the Pacific Biomedical Research Center and a computer was stolen.

Hamilton said the thieves at the UH Press offices "prowled through my office and took a lot of personnel files, including the staff list." But Social Security numbers, home addresses and other personal data had been redacted, he said.

"The police seem to think it's identity-theftirelated," said Hamilton. "But I don't have any sensitive confidential information in my files. I'm careful about that."

But another employee lost her birth certificate, credit card statements and income tax records, said Hamilton. She had been burglarized at home and thought it would be safer to keep those documents at work.

Security has been increased at night especially, when the campus is more deserted. Guards are on duty 24 hours at the most damaged buildings, including Hamilton Library and the Biomedical Sciences building where the John A. Burns School of Medicine is headquartered.

The campus is considered so susceptible that "we've urged people with business in the damaged buildings to wear name tags to identify themselves," said Manoa spokesman Jim Manke.

"The campus is wide open and we have to be extra vigilant," Manke said. "But I think, frankly, we've been fortunate there hasn't been more activity of this kind. It's common to hear of this when you get a disaster situation in Florida or elsewhere where the hurricanes come."

With additional guards stationed at critically damaged buildings to protect equipment and materials being removed for cleaning — and to limit entry — the campus security force is more flexible to conduct patrols, Manke said. "It helps to have the extra security and to have those areas under surveillance constantly," he said.