Posted on: Saturday, November 20, 2004
UH flood damage could exceed $25 million
| • | 50 percent rise in tuition forecast for UH |
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Damage to the University of Hawai'i from Oct. 30 flooding could top $25 million, interim President David McClain acknowledged publicly for the first time yesterday — saying the university will need special legislative help to recover.
Hamilton Library sustained an estimated $10 million in damage. It was one of 35 buildings damaged, and among the five with permanent and severe damage.
"The probability we will exceed the $25 million is growing every day," McClain said.
The $25 million figure is significant because that is the limit of the state's flood insurance coverage. Amounts above that must be covered by the state, which also must cover a 3 percent deductible.
In putting the first estimated dollar figures on the damage, McClain said the university will ask the Legislature and the governor for a special appropriation to cover the balance.
"We need to be made whole," he said, "and to be made whole we'll need help."
McClain's report to the Board of Regents was the first time in which the university has publicly quantified the extent of the damage to Manoa from the flash flood that swept through campus that Saturday night.
"We'll be all right, but we'll never be the same because we've lost so much," McClain said. "Sometimes it takes a disaster to make
(a campus) pull together. The real heroes in this are the faculty and staff in affected units who have come together to deal with an extremely traumatic situation."
McClain said insurance adjusters are still going through the damaged buildings and talking with researchers to make more exact final cost estimates.
Next week, the state's flood insurer, Landmark American Insurance Co., will release a $2 million advance to cover some initial costs. The state also is advancing the university $500,000, he said. And $1 million has been put aside by Manoa chancellor Peter Englert for research faculty who suffered losses.
Cleanup is progressing and might be complete at the Sher-man Laboratory and Agricultural Sciences building by week's end, with new generators restoring electricity by the end of next week.
Electricians are still assessing the Biomedical Sciences Building, but the hope is to have repairs made to blown circuitry in the tower and to have generators powering that part of the building back up in a couple of weeks. A new cable to serve that part of campus was going in yesterday.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
